The Candid Appetite

Where Cooking Meets Photography

Pistachio

Strawberry Pistachio Cupcakes

I don’t know if cupcakes are still a thing or not (I’m behind on a lot of food trends, try not to judge me), but I figured Mother’s Day is the perfect day to bring them on back because let’s face it, mom’s happen to really like cupcakes. That’s a fact, feel free to quote me on that. I know what you must be thinking though, cupcakes are a fad. They’re practically out the door. No one likes them. Much like kale, they’re on their way out, but you know what I say to those cupcake doubters, those cupcakes haters? “What did cupcakes ever do to you?!?!” They’re just trying to live their life. They’re nothing but adorable mini cakes trying to get everyone to like them. That’s all. Nothing else. They’re tiny cakes packed with tons of flavor allowing people to eat as many as possible without guilt because let’s face it, tiny cakes are made to be guilt free. Call me crazy, but I like to believe that they are virtually calorie free. I’m sure that’s how it works. So go ahead and eat as many as you can. Do what you like. Have a ball. Throw a cupcake party. Make sure you invite me though. 

One of my all time favorite flavors happens to be pistachio (pistachio almond ice cream is the bee’s knees by the way, but that’s a story for another time), so I think it’s a huge understatement to say that I am super obsessed with this recipe. Okay so if I’m being honest, obsessed doesn’t even begin to describe it. The idea of pistachio cake makes me all sorts of happy and just in case you didn’t already know, let me refresh your memory. These Mini Pistachio Boston Cream Pies are all that’s right in the world. Nothing screams fancy schmancy more than miniature versions of one of my favorite desserts. That was when my eyes were opened for the first time.

I know that not everyone has a mom like mine who loves BBQ, so I’m sure the latest post, Strawberry Rhubarb BBQ Wings might not be everyone’s go-to Mother’s Day recipe. But have no fear, I’ve got you covered. I thought it best to share a recipe on the other end of the spectrum as well because I consider myself a fair and balanced kind of guy. Where there’s a savory post, there has to be a dessert. So here we are cupcake recipe on hand, and not just any cupcake but a super delicious cupcake at that. Get in the kitchen and bake up something sweet for the moms in your life. They deserve all of the cupcakes. After all, they carried us for all of those months and fed us and raised us and taught us everything we know. If being the number one super women in all the world doesn’t deserve a cupcake, then I don’t know what does. My mom deserves all the cupcakes and so much more. 

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Mini Pistachio Boston Cream Pies

We’ve finally finished unpacking all of the boxes, putting everything into its proper place and assembling all of the furniture we bought thinking we could totally build everything ourselves. Why did we think this was such a great idea? It isn’t so much all of the difficult instructions made entirely out of hard to decipher pictures that gets us, but more so all of the manual twisting and turning of the screwdriver. We really should invest in a power drill. Thankfully, it’s all taken care of now with only a minor amount of cursing under our breath (not a single one from me, mind you).

We’re currently in that state of not wanting to leave our home because it’s just so nice, and it still seems so unreal to us. Like we’re vacationing in someone else’s house. Do you know the feeling? I’m also currently in the state of making sure nothing is out of place. I’m positive I’ve started to get on Julian’s nerves walking around dusting everything, vacuuming, mopping and sweeping all the time. I can’t help it, I’m a perfectionist. Sue me.  

This is officially the first post I’ve shot in the new place and I have to say that it’s been a fun and exciting adventure, to say the least. It has been a little weird, though, mostly because I have to get accustomed to everything all over again. It’s funny how one can get so comfortable somewhere and feel so out of place the second you find yourself somewhere else. I was moving so slowly making and shooting this, for some reason, trying to adjust to my new surroundings, familiarizing myself with the kitchen and forgetting where exactly I put everything away. “Where did that spoon go?” “What cupboard did I shove that bowl in?” “Is it time for a drink, yet?” The answer to which is always, YESSSSSS! It’s always time for a drink…and chocolate. Luckily for us, this here post happens to involve dark chocolate and pistachios. Two of my favorite things. 

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Pistachio Eclairs

For me, growing up, Valentine’s Day was something special. Not because of all the valentines I would receive from my many admirers—that goes without saying. I was pret-ty popular as a kid. I’m totally kidding. You caught me. I didn’t have any admirers, and what’s more, I’d get just the same amount of cards as any other boring Joe at school. The bare minimum. It was sad and depressing. I don’t want to talk about it. No, it was a special day because of the crafts we’d do at home. The coloring of cards and cutting of construction paper and gluing of pipe cleaners. My hearts were always cut lopsided, unlike my sisters’, but that’s okay. I think we all know which were better (mine). The youngest child can practically make a pile of crap and it would still be considered cute. The best part of the day, however, was when we’d get to decorate cookies, and then eat them, of course. Mamma would make a batch of heart-shaped sugar cookies for us. Then we’d proceed to dump globs of pink, red and white colored icing on them, and make it rain nothing but sprinkles. I’d make it rain sprinkles—in my mouth. It was awesome! Sure there would be a gigantic mess at the end of it all, not even worth the cookies that came out of it, but the memories were totally worth it. Now don’t get me wrong. Mamma, bless her soul, isn’t a baker at all. She didn’t spend hours in the kitchen making said Valentine’s Day cookies. Nope. Instead, she would take a few minutes to open up a package of store-bought dough and plop them on a baking sheet and call it a day. We never complained. I mean after all, a cookie is a cookie.

There are only a few things in life, when it  comes to food, that I really enjoy. Okay, who am I kidding? I don’t even believe that myself. There are a lot of food things in life I can’t get enough of, like Valentine’s Day cookies for instance. Also, doughnuts are definitely on the top of that can’t-get-enough list. Come to think of it, I don’t think there is a list out there where doughnuts don’t make an appearance. Freshly popped popcorn doused in a generous amount of questionable white cheddar cheese powder, add that to my “food I really enjoy” list also. Powdered popcorn cheese? Yes, please! 100% yes. I don’t even give it a second thought, yes. Of course there are more reasonable foods I absolutely go nuts for like, french fries, tater tots, hash browns (I promise you it’s not all potatoes, but really it is), potato tacos, and garlic mashed potatoes. I was a potato in my past life, remember? Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets—you’ll forever have my heart. Croutons on an iceberg salad. Hard boiled eggs in the evening. Whipped ricotta on crusty bread with a drizzle of good olive oil. Pistachios in pretty much ANYTHING (especially ice cream). Yeah, I could go on and on but you catch my drift, I love food. Especially themed food.

I think the best part of any holiday is the themed food, snacks and desserts you can make and eat. What makes Valentine’s Day so special? Is it all the love that is going around? Sure that’s nice, but no that’s not it. Is it the fact that you can spend the day with your loved ones? Uh I don’t think so. That can happen any day of the week, if you think about it. Perhaps it’s all the heart shaped chocolate, brownies, cookies, love-inspired desserts and meals out there? Yeah that’s definitely it. Think about it, what other day of the year is it perfectly acceptable to dive, mouth first, into a heart-shaped box of chocolate and not even feel guilty about it? What other day can you pretend to make something decadent like pistachio eclairs for your “significant other,” when in reality, we all know it’s really just for you? There is no other day. This is the only chance we get. So let’s stop fighting it and do nothing but eat chocolate and candy and pistachio eclairs on this day of love. That’s what February 14th is all about, right? Well that, and chubby naked babies flying around, flinging arrows at people.

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Pistachio Cherry Cream Stuffed French Toast

All I’ve wanted to do lately is talk about bread. And french toast. And butter. Really I just sit around all day long thinking about soft pillows of bread, spread with butter, and then made into french toast. My mind usually drifts off to all sorts of crazy delicious scenarios that involve me eating nothing but bread. Large mountains of bread. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, right? Of course that’s totally not really weird for me because I’m always thinking and talking about bread and butter and french toast on a daily basis. Just a normal day in the life of Jonathan Melendez. A few weeks ago I made homemade challah, which actually was the last post and my current addiction. If you think that I can’t eat two entire loaves of challah bread in the span of 24 hours, then you are very much mistaken. You underestimate my love for bread in general. It’s a love affair. I’m only half embarrassed to admit that I can eat two challah loaves in one sitting, but at the same time I’m kind of, sort of, maybe just a little bit, proud of that important unimportant fact. I’m like “Golly oh boy Jon you’re a magician when it comes to eating bread. You should have your own reality show or something!” Then somehow I go off on a tangent, much like I always do, thinking about what the title of my show would be. It would have to be something bread related like “Cutting The Crust with Jonathan Melendez.” “Two Loaves, One Man.” “Oh If I Was A French Baguette…” Clearly I’m still working on the title and the plot of the show, although I know that whatever it is it would involve a lot of bread. I mean like a lot of bread (we’re talking an obscene amount really, so envision with me here). I can live with that. You won’t hear any complaints from me. Unless of course I somehow run out of this supposed “never-ending” bread. In which case, I’d probably just move away slowly from me before I bite you for taking my bread. I’m totally kidding….you wouldn’t take my bread.

I may or may not (let’s be real, we all know I did) have eaten the two loaves of bread from the last post before I could even make this french toast post. Of course I was SO upset that I had to redo this recipe. I mean more bread, really?! Ugh, gosh what a drag. My life is so difficult. Woe is me. I dragged my butt back into the kitchen and made more bread—like I was being forced or couldn’t think of something better to do when we all know it’s all I really wanted to do. How tragic does that sound? Don’t feel bad for me though, I had four loaves of bread. When I finally practiced enough will power to prevent myself from eating the fourth loaf, I turned that last challah into a delicious breakfast and brunch dish. I think you just found an excuse to make breakfast for dinner. I’ll let you take all the credit too as long as you invite me over.

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Pistachio Pound Cake

This is a pistachio post. It is a post dedicated to the perfect snack. It is a post filled to the brim with ridiculous amounts of this salty morsel. I have recently—and by recently I mean like right this moment as I sit here eating my fifth piece of cake—come to the realization that pistachios are the best nut ever. Hands down. One hundred percent. The greatest. I used to think the title was held by cashews but alas, all this time I have been mistaken. Blinded, I was misinformed and deceived. The amount of flavor that pistachios have is so often overlooked and misunderstood. Time and again we think of pistachios solely as a fancy snack one might find at a party or gathering of some sort. While yes this happens to be true, we somehow seem to forget that pistachios are incredible in sweet dinners and savory desserts. Wait, I got that wrong. Pistachios are delicious in savory dinners and sweet desserts. Either way, we cast it off to the side when it comes to cooking and baking, because other nuts are much more traditional when it comes to such tasks. Almonds, walnuts and peanuts have taken over the spotlight and forced us to dismiss the pistachio as a main actor in the kitchen. This cake has changed my life, for the better. Although this is the first time I bake with pistachios, we do go way back, pistachios and I. We have a connection that I should have remembered before.

I always associate pistachios with my childhood. Ever since I can remember my favorite ice cream flavor is and has been pistachio. I will never say no to a giant, heaping, enormous helping of gelato pistachio and if you ever find me denying myself this pleasure I give you permission to slap me across the face. I can recall several weekends in my youth where my sisters and I would each be treated to a dollar. To a child in the 90’s, this was a goldmine. The three of us would walk down to the neighborhood Rite-Aid/Thrifty’s to see what we could spend our fortune on. I would get a giant scoop of pistachio ice cream while my sisters would spend their money on more sophisticated items. I walked out of the store—a skinny, tall, and awkward kid wearing kaki shorts and Chuck Taylor high-tops—holding a cone much too big for a child of any size. All the way home I would enjoy my treat as my sisters chit-chatted about “grown-up” things or whatever it was that older sisters talked about. I was that one weird kid who did not get excited about chocolate, neither did I jump up for joy at the sight of strawberry. No, I was the odd child who begged for pistachio, in all its green glory. The one who would scour the flavors with my nose pressed up against the glass scanning the tubs of ice cream until I found the green one without the minty chocolate bits in it.

The sun would set off in the distance casting an orange, purple, and red hue around our neighborhood, just as we got back home. The three of us would sit down on the front porch steps as I finished my ice cream cone—my sisters amazed on how I could finish such a big treat and still ask what was for dinner—and in that moment life could not have been better. You would think that now as an adult my tastes for cold sweet treats would change and evolve, but thankfully it has not. I still find joy, comfort, and pleasure in pistachio ice cream, often craving it whenever the three of us are together driving by a Rite-Aid. Although now the cone is the perfect size for me. I guess you can say deep down at heart I am still that tall odd kid doing what I do best; eating pistachio ice cream preferably while wearing shorts with Chuck Taylor high-tops. I guess some things never change.

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