Most Fabulous Wonderful Bestest Chocolate Dessert/Cake Thing Ever!!!!

My Intern brought in the recipe for his mom's amazing chocolate cake. I will share it here-- hope you enjoy! I've eaten the final result, but never made it for myself-- so I will let you know if I figure out any more tricks!

Chocolate Delight
8oz chocolate (Lindt comes recommended)
8oz unsaled butter
8oz sugar
6 eggs
2T flour
1t lemon juice
cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375. You will need a Bain Marie. (water bath)

1) Separate egg yolks from whites
2) Melt the chocolatewith the butter in a double boiler until smooth. Then let it cool.
3) Combine egg yolks with sugar until white. Add flour.
4) Combine chocolate/butter with sugar/egg yolks.
5) Beat egg white (I'm guessing until stiff) then add lemon juice at the end.
6) Add delicately (fold?) egg whites into the chocolate/butter/sugar/egg yolks mixture.
7) Grease and lightly flour (cocoa?) a baking dish (I would say in the 6x12 kind of size was what it looked like)
8) Bake 50-55 minutes. Let cool and then refridgerate over night.
9) Unmold (may involve a quick dip of the baking sheet in warm water (like a jello)) and coat with cocoa powder.
10) Enjoy! (that was on the instructions!!)

HP #5 Movie Tonight!

Tonight, traditional wings night will be cancelled as Craig and I head to the movies to catch one of the most awaited summer films-- EVER.

Thats right, the next edition of the HP sequence came out today (and I was asleep! at midnight) so we are off to see it this evening. I can't wait! I have decided that I probably shouldn't dress up as well... the cape and hat might be a little toasty considering the heatwave we are in the middle of. BUT-- I AM SUPER SUPER EXCITED! Plus... LESS than 10 days til Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows comes out... what a great July!!!


Other than that, a slow and somewhat blah day at work--- so I will keep trudging through the afternoon with the happy evening to look forward to.

Oh-- and a good recipe! We had Grilled Pacific Pork Kebabs with Pineapple Rice last night-- pretty tasty, quick, and even made Craig do the cooking! (that's my kind of meal!) This recipe was from Everyday foods. I have been a fan of this magazine for a few months now-- since Claud sent me a subscription. The recipes I have tried have all been pretty good-- and pretty easy-- I would recommend checking this magazine, or at least the website out! (even though it is by nutty martha stewart)

La Torta Final!

(Ok, so that's the last cake)

Our last cake decorating class was this past week. I finally got the pictures today and thought I would share. This is one more example of the everpresent buttermilk cake-- though this time flavored with a little orange blossom water and then soaked with a mandarin orange syrup. This cake was filled with mandarin orange (clementinas in spanish) and frosted with a normal buttercream. We then covered it with fondant and did the fondant drape in the colors of the flag of Spain and then I made a little gumpaste flower to stick on the top. Tada! the last cake for class... so now I just need to get a few cake jobs to make some money with all I have learned!

Tuesday again!

Its tuesday again, and wonderefully I finished work at 1:30pm and WENT HOME!! Yay an early nap! I was up at the crack of dawn (thanks evil noisy neighbors-- will vent on that later) but at least I got my cake baked for class tonight-- so it could be worse!

The weekend visit to my parents was nice-- I got to work at the basket party for the firehouse and Craig got to haul gravel and help reframe the garage. So it was busy and all that, but a nice visit overall. I even finally dropped off my VERY late mother's and father's day presents-- so that was good too. We then hurried home to meet Craig's parents and return the weener-mutt YAY! They hung out for dinner (homemade fajitas-- want the recipe?) and then headed home the next morning.
So we are now down to our normal contingent of pets-- and no poo or puke to be found!

Temporary control of the house has been regained!

Irish Cake

Here is the Irish cake.


On a review of the Guinness cake-- VERY GOOD. Not overly sweet. Nicely moist. Dense enough to take icing, just be careful of cut surfaces as it makes a LOT of crumbs. This cake domed a fair amount when I baked it, so it required some leveling. I am not sure if that is a me specific problem or a problem due to the recipe, so be warned.

I filled and frosted it with an Irish Cream/Cream Cheese Butter Cream. No more of that nasty crisco icing we had to use before. Other than getting mildly buzzed by evaporating alcohol fumes while whipping the icing, it really doesn't have too much of an alcohol taste to it. (Much.... can I serve this to my intern? He's only 19... of course, when I mentioned what kind of cake it was his response was "Cool, an Irish Car Bomb in a cake" so I have a feeling I am not the one doing the corrupting here!)

There are some lumps and bumps in the fondant on this one-- we were using the base cake to demo different techniques and then just did this as the way to leave it finally-- so it had stuff "glued" on and then pulled off which left it less than perfect under there. This one is pretty simple as class this week was to cover a cake in fondant-- we didn't learn any flowers or anything else, so its a basic cake.

Guinness Cake

Tonight is Cake class 2---

the Guinness Cake recipe

THIS RECIPE MAKES A TON!!!!! (seriously, 1lb butter, 4 cups EACH flour and sugar)

So due to PA's archaic liquor laws-- we were not able to buy beer on Sunday, and you have to buy a case (or pay almost as much to get just a 6-pack)-- we are now the proud owners of a case of Guinness, Craig sees this as no hardship... and the bottles are funny-- they have widgits to get them to foam correctly.

Stay tuned this evening or tomorrow for pics of the finished "Irish" cake.

Two quick meals

First up... I made Spinach Fettucini from scratch and it turned out quite well with a nice homemade alfredo sauce--- now if only the picture didn't look so lousy!

Last night I made the trout I had previously listed the recipe for. This time I mashed the capers a little with a mortar and pestle to break them up. I think that was a nice touch-- just lightly smash them so they split up a little. YUM. I could happily eat this trout every day! (Stupid pollution PCBs and Mercury--- oh well, to be cautious-- only one serving per week)

Thats it for cooking this week. Other than this I am working on the seminar of doom for Thursday and STILL trying to get that comforter to dry.

The end of an era

Nothing too exciting today to share, but I do have a couple of pictures from wings night last night.

We have decided that wings night at shakey's may be coming to an end after many years-- The prices go up... (ok, so 15cent wings is still phenomenal, but $1.50 for a little plastic cup of coors light is ridiculous) and now we can't even take home leftovers-- I mean, I can understand them not wanting you to order 50 wings and immediately pack them all up and leave-- but if the minimum order is 12 and I eat 6-- they now want me to throw the rest away?!?! That makes no sense at all. So here is a pic from one of the last wings nights and of Jackie's creative "container". Have no fear-- we are still getting together, we just figured we can get better beer and all for the same or less if we all kick in $5 a week and take turns having it at peoples houses. We'll all be better off for the lack of smoke and loud lousy music. So if you have any good wings recipes, let me know! (I only know what I remember from working at McCoy's-- deep fried drive-in goodness coated in "butter-like substance" mixed with Frank's red-hot.)

Low-fat Double Chocolate Brownies-- that don't suck!

'Light' Double Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Devin Alexander)

Ingredients
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (used good double strength vanilla)
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (yes, really... only 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used normal Hershey's, will try next time with special dark)
1.5 teaspoon instant coffee granules (Maxwell House)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (or a little more)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
cooking spray


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Spray an 8x8 inch pyrex pan with spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, using a sturdy whisk or spatula, mix the applesauce, vanilla, egg whites, coffee granules, and sugar until they are well combined/dissolved. (you can use the mixer here-- why make life more difficult)
Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
Stir the mixture until it is just combined and no lumps remain.
Pour it into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle the chips evenly over the top.
Bake the brownies for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (a few crumbs are okay).
WARNING-- Brownies will puff, a lot, a whole lot. Fill the pan kind of puff. When you pull them out of the oven, they will fall-- this is good. That's what makes them dense and moist.
Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow them to cool 5 minutes. (AT LEAST- will be very very very soft-- can seem almost liquid when you cut them)
Brownies will be very sticky-- I placed them on flattened paper cupcake cups and brought them to work that way. They stick to the plate pretty badly and you won't get them back off without a fight. (and then you have to eat the crumbs)
Cut into 12 equal brownies. Makes 12 (1 brownie) servings.

Each brownie has: only 88 calories, 2 g protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, less than 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 133 mg sodium

Review--
These are pretty good-- they are not a "chewy" brownie-- but they have a great chocolate flavor. I was impressed with that. These will definitely satisfy a chocolate craving. All in all-- I would make these again for a moist chocolate dessert-- its almost a brownie, but just lacks a little bit of chewiness/crustiness-- but I am the person who likes the corner extra chewy brownie best of all. I would definitely recommend them when trying to be more cautious about what you eat-- and I might even make them if I weren't.

Oh, and now I have egg yolks left over to make some lemon curd, yum.

This is what I am hungry for... sadly, not making this tonight.

This nukes really well-- so good. Left over rice is good for rice pudding or if you make the creamy coconut rice, then it is good with some sliced mango and a little bit of coconut cream drizzled in the rice.

Thai Basil Chicken

Adapted from this recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups uncooked jasmine rice -- cook according to package directions-- you can add a little extra coconut milk to the rice while it cooks for creamier more tasty rice-- plus it will use up the leftovers from the can of coconut milk)

3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce (yes, it looks and smells scary-- but its good in the recipe)
3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I go a little less-- I am a wuss on spicy)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced (I use a standard yellow one)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced (or more)
2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into 1/2 inch strips (or little chunks or whatever)
1/2 lb white mushrooms, sliced
5 green onions, chopped (or more-- chop the white and a little green too-- thin chop)
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh basil leaves ( I never manage to get this much-- I would say I average 1/2 cup fresh basil tops)

DIRECTIONS
Bring rice and water to a boil in a pot.

Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 20 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the coconut milk, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, and red pepper flakes.
In a skillet or wok, heat the oil over medium-high heat.

Stir in the onion, ginger, and garlic, and cook until lightly browned.

Mix in chicken strips, and cook about 3 minutes, until browned.

Stir in the coconut milk sauce and sliced mushrooms.

Continue cooking until sauce is reduced be about 1/3 and mushrooms are tender.

Mix in green onions and basil, and cook until heated through.

Serve over the cooked rice.

I usually halve the chicken part-- and still make as much sauce-- I like sauce-y rice meals.

Weekend Updates

Yes, I was bad. I didn't post for a whole weekend, and then I took last night off as well... so here it is, a quick rundown of the weekend!


Craig and I drove out to my parent's house in Ligonier on Friday night-- after a quick stop at Walmart to buy a fishing license from Derek-- the semi-breasted, nail painted, ear pierced, beared sporting goods clerk-- odd. Still not sure if Derek was a he or a she or somewhere in between. Best not to wonder I think. So then we are off to western PA with the dog and the cat. The cat does not like her carrier. AT ALL. She cries pitifully the whole time she is in there and claws desperately to get out. So after a little while I felt awful and we rolled the windows up and let her out of the carrier... turns out she is also terrified of the car trips. I should have guessed based on her reaction to the outdoors here, but the car was a lot for her. So she sat in my lap for 3 hours til we got there. She rolled her self over on her back stretched out her legs (one of them ending up jammed under my chin) and pretty much was content as could be--- as long as I didn't dare move or talk too loudly... ah... good thing she's a cute kitten and we already love her... she's a little pain the butt sometimes! Murphy was his normal needy self... he thinks he should get to ride in the front with us... so he spends the time drooling heavily on my shoulder and inching himself into the front seat (like we won't notice 100 lbs of dog suddenly on my lap!)


Saturday morning, Craig and my Dad leave at the crack of dawn to go fishing. Its trout season, and I want some trout! Here are a couple pictures of some soggy fisherman, and their haul! (Craig got only one -- but it was the biggest one!) And I got to bring them all home frozen to enjoy later!




The boys went fishing again on Sunday-- and it was a much nicer day out, here's a couple pictures of that. Craig didn't hook any trout on Sunday, but he did catch a whole bunch of bass-- you can see the one in the picture below. The guys did end up with 6 fish on Sunday though... and I helped out by gutting them. Did you know trout have teeth?!?! And they are kinda sharp little buggers too. Oh well.. in the name of the fish dinner than I will have now-- gutting them was the least I could do.


Trout "Recipe" (ok, so its not a recipe per say, but it is a tasty simple way to make trout)
One trout-- Split into "fillets"
Dredge the trout in seasoned flour (flour with a little salt and pepper)
In a pan over medium heat, melt a little butter (~2 T)
Saute trout in butter on one side and then the other until cooked through and lightly browned on both sides
Add capers (a good palmful, drained) and toss to coat with butter and heat through.
Remove from heat, squeeze in fresh lemon juice to taste.
Eat. (see... tough directions on this step)

And now a couple of gratuitous shots of the dog being, well... the dog. We stop every time on our way home at the little mom and pop drive in I worked in through college to get some ice cream. Murphy loves ice cream and so we get him a vanilla toddler cone. The tough part is convincing him to eat the ice cream FIRST and then the cone. He always wants to take two huge bites and be done, but that inevitably leads to a mess of ice cream getting dumped on the ground. This time didn't go too badly, and I managed to get him to eat about 2/3 of the ice cream before he bit the cone in half!

Latest Cake

Here are a couple quick photos of the latest cake for class. This cake was the final cake for the "Fondant and tiered cakes" course (Course 3). We passed... even with our slightly unorthodox cake. No movies this time. just some quick snapshots and a recipe.

This cake is actually a brownie then frosted in peppermint REAL buttercream and then done up to look like a plate and cake in fondant.

I did up the bottom round brownie to look like a fancy plate using silver tinted royal icing and brush embroidery and stringwork-- which sadly does not come across in the pictures. Made the fork from silvery-gray fondant and then stacked some triangular pieces of brownie together to make the slice of 'cake' which Craig then covered in chocolate-y brown fondant and minty green for the top and back. I added on the rope borders and made a quick fondant rose, and there you have it... our final cake!

This is our last cake for about a month as there is no class during May. Our next course (Fondant and Gumpaste) begins again in June-- I for one am looking forward to the next class... but also glad for a few weeks with no baking that HAS to be done-- plus it should help with that whole diet plan thing! Cakes are awfully tempting, plus you have to taste things along the way to make sure they are "ok for company".

Veggie Pizza Things Recipe

Veggie Pizza from my Mom

1 tube crescent dough
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese softened
½ cup mayonnaise
1 envelope Ranch Dressing mix
Assorted finely chopped veggies (scallions, cauliflower(note by Jesse-- EWWWW!), broccoli, tomatoes, carrots (note by Jesse-- I usually just shred them), etc.)

Press crescent rolls to cover the bottom of a cookie sheet (note by Jesse-- Line the pan with foil-- use the foil to lift it out of the pan when finished). Bake at 350 until golden brown (follow the directions on the tube to guesstimate a time). Cool.

Combine cream cheese, mayo and dressing mix. Spread in a thin layer (heck spread however far it goes) over the baked crust.

Combine chopped veggies (and finer is better here…..) in a large bowl, then distribute over the cream cheese layer to cover. Press down on the veggies so they adhere a bit.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or longer, if you have the time.
Cut into small squares to serve.

***Note: I have seen other people use grated cheddar or something on top of the veggies....not heated or melted or anything, just kind of laid on there like the veggies.***

The Bridal Shower and Barbecue Night

Well... I forgot to get a picture of the food spread before it was demolished... but it was nice. We made kingergarten punch (Hawaiian punch+ginger ale + floating rainbow sherbet) and I made these veggie pizza things that mom gave me the recipe for (someone once told me that they "simplified their veggie dipping experience") and Kim made her extra delicious spinach dip. So that was out with some cheese and crackers and the cake for food.

Here are some pics of the day. Bride-to-be Leah had a good time and we all got a kick out of the ever popular TP bridal gowns.

We told the guys (Leah's fiance Mike and Craig) that they couldn't be in the living room, so they sat on the stairs and looked at us... then shortly decided to grab as many snacks as they could and some DVD about communists taking over Colorado and head to the cellar (and "check out" the beer fridge).

Jackie and Nekeshia won the first game and some "fabulous" prizes from Dollar Stores (and playdough)

Nekeshia won the "guess the kitchen white powder" game after finally believing that not all the bags were FLOUR... and that none of the bags were "crack". My friends are NUTS!!! Craig is sad to see the flower leave as he was quite enjoying wearing around the house as a hat.

Bride-to-be Leah with the two "models" in the Super-Biodegradable Gown Contest Kara and Jackie. Jackie and Nekeshia won by a close vote for their daring "bare the goods" neckline, while Kara and Candice received special note for their traditional gown, long train, and lovely veil.

Tiki was adorable all afternoon, but she then decided that all these gowns with the dangly trains were just big toys for her! She started chasing the gals through the house trying to pounce on the trailing TP trains. Cute... but she is a naughty little girl!

I had to pick her up to prevent further disaster to the "gowns" so here is one more pic of the kitten (and me).

All in all a big hit, and a lot of fun. When the shower was over, we let boys out of the cellar and sent them outside to fire up the grill. Craig cooked up hot dogs and burgers for everyone-- the gals and then our guy friends who came over just for dinner while we hauled all the chairs out of the house (we are still looking around for a picnic table set when we pass clearance stuff at Lowe's) and got chips and all that kinda stuff ready. It was gorgeous weather out and was nice to be able to sit outside. I got my hot dog perfectly burnt... and 3 other people asked for theirs burnt as well, so I proved to Craig that that particular foible is not THAT odd. It was a great evening and a really nice day.

The Cake!

Here is the cake I made this weekend for the Bridal Shower. I am still working on the whole film-making thing, but this one is not as shaky as the last one. I used the same yellow cake recipe I referred to before and then made a stabilized whipped cream to fill and frost. I also sliced til I had about 2.5 cups of strawberries and put some sugar on them til they were softened a little and leaked juice. I split the layers, filled them with the whipped cream then topped with a good handful of strawberries and then stuck the next layer on and did the same again. I had made the roses and leaves from fondant the night before and let them dry, then arranged them on the cake just before I put it out. I would be cautious about using fondant on whipped cream for any cake that has to sit-- as the moisture of the whipped cream can liquefy the fondant into a sticky oozy mess.

Another look at the latest cake

A different view. a pretty package. Still VERY yellow...

oh, and on that recipe... allrecipes.com allows you to scale them... I halved it and made 2 full 8-inch rounds.

Cake Course #3 Cake #1

The latest cake. all fondant and yes it is very very yellow. Also you can see here my first fondant rose. I still need some work, but I am pretty happy with it overall. We were pretty good this week and did follow the directions for the most part... well... everyone else made a white cake but still... and I did all the little flowers to the side, but something had to be done to tone down that yellow. (next time it needs to be a prettier pastel color to go with the others!)

too bad fondant isn't too tasty-- but this cake is a yellow buttermilk cake with a strawberry butter cream filling... so the inside should be good at least! I REALLY recommend this cake recipe, its super simple, very flavorful and moist too--- Craig even did the baking this time-- and it still turned out great!