Food Awesomeness at SITE Partay

Tonight was truly an awesome evening, as I got to attend a fabulous soiree, organized by my friends Mackenzi and Meg at Mackenzi's store, SITE.  The party was in honor of Meg's fabulous Queens foodie bible called the Food Lovers' Guide to Queens, which she worked so diligently on.  I truly love this book, as it does a great job of really respecting Queens' food scene and letting all its many gems shine.  We're all so proud of the work that Meg has done for the community, which was proven by tonight's huge crowd of supporters.

I also wanted to thank Meg for putting yours truly into her book, by listing Fooditka as a trusted food resource, but even better by putting one of my near and dear family recipes into its pages.  The recipe is for our Ceresnova Bublanina (or Slovak cherry cake).  Bringing the recipe to life at the party by serving up the cake, people seemed to really enjoy it and I was so happy to relay the nice feedback to my mom, who helped me make this particular cake.

The Food:
In addition to this, there were so many other amazing local treats featured tonight such as Astor Bake Shop's sweets, Sac's Place pizza, pasta and meatballs, as well as Il Bambino's paninis.  Everything was a total hit and people really stuck around to enjoy the food and chat with their Astoria neighbors.  I was happy to see new connections being made and a few reunions too.  The food no doubt, was a uniting factor and it wasn't just once that I heard someone commenting on the buttery king cake, the fudgy cookies or the bodacious meatballs.  

Thanks to my friends for putting on such a lovely affair and to my gracious and fantastic Astorians who make these type of events so worthwhile.  Also, if you're looking to get your hands on Meg's book, look no further...and enjoy!

Ceresnova Bublanina on Martha Stewart Living Radio

As most of you know, I was featured on Martha Stewart Living radio on Sirius Satellite radio today.  I was on the air with the lovely Mario Bosquez, former CBS anchor, food extraordinaire and author of "The Chalupa Rules."  Besides having great radio presence, he was easy to get along with and we conversed comfortably on air.  It really was a pleasure!  Here's the recording.

The show was especially gratifying because I had the opportunity to bring in a live sample of one of my dishes.  And being that I'm a proud Slovak, I shared a beloved cherry cake dessert called Ceresnova Bublanina.  Mario loved it - and went so far as to declare it "irrisistible." The producers also took enthusiastic bites and remarked about the "explosion of cherry flavor." I'm so glad it was a hit!

If you'd like to make it at home, here's the recipe.  The beauty behind it is that it's really simple to make, only costing you under an hour to prepare and bake.  If you don't have sour cherries for the filling, you can try other berries or even canned apricots.  I hope that you too can enjoy this yummy, moist treat.

Ceresnova Bublanina - Slovak Cherry Cake

This airy cherry cake has been enjoyed in my family on many occasions. Whether for birthdays or casual get togethers, we always grace the table (and our guests’ tastebuds) with bublanina. Even our American friends love it and have fun pronouncing the whimsical name. Say it – “Boob-lah-nhi-nah.”

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 ¼ cup milk (whole milk is best)
2/3 cup of powdered sugar
5 eggs (separate yolks and whites)
¼ cup of unsalted margarine or butter
1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of white flour bread crumbs (extra fine)
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of lemon rind
2 cups of pitted cherries (preserved wild cherries are better because they have more flavor, but make sure to drain them well)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 370-375 degrees.Combine milk, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and mix well.

Whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder and bread crumbs. Add to wet ingredients.

Beat the egg whites to form stiff peaks. Gently fold into the batter. Spread onto a greased baking sheet, lightly dusted with flour.
Toss pitted cherries in some flour and fluff up with your hands. Take the cherries and place them into the batter in a symmetrical pattern (or asymmetrical if you prefer). They soak into the batter quickly so work fast.

Bake for 30 min or when it passes the clean toothpick test. Let cool, cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar.

In addition to this recipe, I also talked about Zenon Taverna's Cypriot Pastichio.  Here's the recipe for your reference.  You need to devote some time to make it, but the payoff is big!