Happy Birthday to You

Tomorrow is V's birthday. But, since we both have to work tomorrow V decided he would like to celebrate it today. Basically it means he gets spoiled and I make him a cake. Some years I go all out and make a fancy cake. I never really make cakes since there are only two of us and a multi-level cake is just too much for us to eat. This year I'm pretty burnt out so I decided to go with a more simple chocolate cake. Luckily, simple doesn't mean boring.

I made Martha's Easy Chocolate Cake. It was definitely easy. It calls for an 8 inch pan, I only have a 9 inch one so I used that instead of buying a new one. It turned out fine, it's just not as thick this way. Which honestly isn't necessarily a bad thing because this is a super rich cake. I also doubled the chocolate glaze recipe to make sure there was plenty. I'm not sure the original amount would have been enough.

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan; line bottom with parchment paper. Butter paper, dust with cocoa powder, tapping out excess; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, wisk together cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternating with sour cream, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
3. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool before attempting to take out of the pan. I transferred it directly to the cake stand. Martha says to put it on a cookie sheet first.

Chocolate Glaze (this is the recipe, doubled)

8 ounces coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate ( ended up using a tiny bit more because I wanted it more like a ganache than a glaze)

1 cup heavy cream

In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Let cool until thick yet pourable, 2 to 3 minutes.

This cake was very rich and yummy. I added sprinkles to the top to make it festive. And I love sprinkles. We watched Tootsie while eating cake and now we are watching The Expendables. We have a very diverse television. Enjoy!

Halloween

Every year my office has a halloween party during office hours. It's a pretty nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. There's always a competition for creepiest appetizer and dessert. Last year I spent about 3 days making oreo truffles and dipping them in chocolate and decorating them so they looked like ghosts and witches hats. And I lost. Which is fine because they were more cute than creepy anyway.

But this year I decided I would only spend an hour working on the treats total. So, I saw these cute little guys online somewhere and thought they would be fun. So, make some brownies. While they are cooling take Milano cookies and dark icing with a very small icing tip. Write RIP on the cookies. Then bash some oreos so they are crumbly. I think they are pretty cute. The only problem is, the brownies mix I used (Ghirardelli) is tasty but pretty soft so they are having trouble staying together and holding up the cookies. I should have overcooked them a little I think. I mushed them all together and hopefully they make it to the party tomorrow!

Dinner dinner dinner time

This week I didn't do much cooking. I've started taking pilates classes twice a week which is a lot of fun. However, this weekend I'm going home so I won't be able to take my regular Saturday class so I doubled up during the week. Getting at home at 7 makes it a little hard to cook very much. On Monday V made yummy baked potatoes green beans... and steak for the meat eater of the family. Last night I had leftovers and tonight we had whatever we found in the fridge.

Luckily, the one time I did cook this week it was yummy! I found a blog about a year ago, budgetbytes, that has been kind of hit or miss. It's about budget recipes which is good since I've been trying to stick to a strict weekly grocery budget. I don't make a lot of recipes from the site but every now and then I'll find something yummy. I forgot to take pictures when I was cooking (I get hungry and forget) but I would definitely recommend this for an easy weeknight meal.

Spinach Artichoke Pasta

4 cloves garlic

olive oil

1/2 cup sour cream

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup white wine (I used more.. maybe like half a cup)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated parmesan

14 oz canned artichokes

10 oz chopped frozen spinach (defrosted)

Red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

1 lb farfaille pasta

Saute garlic in olive oil. Then add in wine and reduce (this is why I added extra, so it could reduce and be more flavorful). Add in sour cream and cream cheese until combined. Add milk and parmesan. Allow cheese to melt together. Then stir in spinach and chopped artichokes. Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Stir in cooked pasta. I also ended up adding starchy water to the sauce before I added the pasta to make it more sauce-like than dip-like. V and I both loved this one. Enjoy!

Bake sale

The place where I work is funded by the United Way. I think UW is a great organization and they help pay my mortgage but, somethings about them annoy me. One thing is, when a business receives funding from the UW, they are required to have an inner-office fund raiser. I'm not opposed to fund raisers and I like to make donations to organizations I believe in. However, it does bother me that I am repeatedly ask to essentially take a pay cut from the people giving me my pay. It just doesn't seem right. It's no surprise that people in public interest areas are poorly paid, so why add insult to injury.

But, I always feel guilty not doing anything. So, each year I make something for the fund raising bake sale. That way I feel like I'm doing some good, I get to bake, and I don't feel as bad about not donating money. This year I decided to make mini-pumpkin tarts. They were surprisingly easy. Basically, take puff pastry and cut it out in the shape of a pumpkin. Brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Then spoon over any pumpkin pie filling you like and bake a 350 for 25-30 minutes. I don't really like any pumpkin pie except the one made by my brother but Victor said it's tasty. So I'll bring them in tomorrow and see how they sell.

Trash TV

I adore trash tv. The hour between when I get home and when V gets home is my private time to watch whatever trash tv I want. Pretty much the only shows I actively dislike are the Kardashians, The Hills, The City.... I'm sure there are more... hehe

On of my favorite shows is the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I can't stand any of the other Real Houswife series but this one I'm always excited to watch. V actually really likes this one also so it's fun to watch it together and gossip about the people on the show. There's one lady on the show, Theresa, is a trip. She's first generation Italian and is supposedly a great cook. And she came out with her own cookbook. And I bought... accidentally on purpose.

I didn't want to buy it. I tried really hard to avoid buying it. But, I follow her on twitter and people kept telling her how much they love her recipes and how they've lost weight cooking from her book and how everyone they cook for loves the recipes also. So, after weeks of hearing this, and finding the book on sale with free shipping, I decided to go ahead and buy the book. The little stories in the book don't do much for me. If I could cut the book apart and just keep the recipes, I would like it a lot better. She does have some good tips about how to make a massive batch of tomato sauce base, then can it and use it as the base for a multitude of other recipes. I think I might try that. She also recommends buying dried pasta with duram wheat because it's the traditional kind of wheat used in Italy and isn't broken down and bleached like most pasta flours. So it's almost like a whole wheat.

Anyway, last night was the first night I made anything from her cookbook. I made baked chicken with lemon basil sauce and rosemary roasted potatoes.

The potatoes are really my recipe. I've been growing rosemary and basil in little pots outside. I cut new potatoes into little bits and tossed it with chopped rosemary and a little bit of olive oil. Then I roasted at 400 for 15 minutes then 430 for 30 minutes (I just made up that timing last night, but it worked really well.)

The lemon basil sauce was so yummy and tasty. Basically, you put a small garlic clove, a big handful of basil, juice from one lemon, two glugs of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor. Then if it needs to be thinned out add a tiny bit of water. I added too much water last night but I just drained it a little and it was fine. I would definitely recommend this sauce for fish, chicken, steak. It might be good on veggies too. Enjoy!

Funny

When we bought the house there were very few plants in the yard. There were some super ugly overgrown evergreen bushes in the front that we have cut down. In their place we have planted Hydrangeas, Azaleas, Columbines, and butterfly bushes. However, they are all pretty small right now so we are in the waiting stage. But even the bitty bushes look better than the evergreens.

In the back we planted a row of evergreen trees that will grow and make a barrier so the neighbors can't see in the hot tub area. He also planted some pretty lilacs (called lavender chiffon haha) and he filled one of the planters with a mish/mash of really pretty fun flowers. In the other he decided he wanted some height so he planted tall grasses with green ground cover around the bottom. We really love the look and interest it added. The kitties, however, love it to hide in. Some of our other planters have lilacs and another tall flower in the spring. Now with the grasses they have hiding spots in the summer and fall too! We almost didn't see LC back there...

Can't find me...

See the evergreens in the background? They are growing pretty well!

Blue Cheese Crostini

They crostini I made for my friend's party were quite tasty. Another friend gave me a similar recipe but it said to broil them at the last minute and serve immediately. The problem with that was since it was a cocktail party type party it's hard to serve food immediately so I wanted a recipe that was meant to be served at room temperature. I found this recipe with pears grilled on a little grill pan. That way the pears aren't raw but nothing has to be hot either. V made fun of be for being fancy. What can I say?

These are really easy. Get a baguette, slice into pieces on an angle, broil each side until lightly toasted. Get some good pears (I used Bosch, the recipe called for Asian pears.) Slice them (not too thin if you are going to grill them because they will get too mushy and break apart when removing them from the pan.) Grill both sides until they get pretty grill marks but aren't over cooked. Get some good creamy blue cheese (not the pre-crumbled, get the kind still in a wedge I used Stilton) let it get a little warm. Mix/mush it together with milk (I used a mix of 2% and buttermilk to keep the tang) until it forms a really thick paste. This makes it easier to spread onto the bread and makes it stay on the bread. Put the blue cheese on the bread then a slice of pear. Serve at room temperature.

These are a nice mixture of tangy blue cheese and sweet slightly caramelized pears. Enjoy!