follow-up

so i told you that my steak-chocolate cake expedition has begun.
well, i just wanted to post some pictures of the chocolate cake part.....

mixing the batter (atop the recipe page!)


first layer


layer number two...


finished product (version 1)


decision to make and add chocolate shavings


and, voila! (=






YUM!!!!!!!
and, by the way, everyone that had a slice was as enamored as i.

i promise next time to [possibly] not write so much about food....but it's just so much fun!

enjoy! (=

-C.

some things are changing...

so lately things have been changing around here.
well, what i mean by saying this is that i have made a few drastic changes within myself as of late.
when i was 14 years old, my mom and dad decided that hey, we have 3 acres, let's buy some cows! and just like that, my meat eating days came to a screeching halt. ("steve holt!"--i had to write it, i misspelled halt and it was all over my brain!)
not that i quote-unquote didn't believe in eating red meat, and not even that i fell in love with the dear little things my parents so graciously named: chuck, t-bone, and ribeye. though they were pretty sweet.
no, it was the mere fact that, if i can see a cow one morning, standing outside my front room window, then i most definitely am not going to be digging in to that same cow at the kitchen table the next eventing at supper time. too much visual.
so, now being 28 [nearly 29], it has been close to 15 years since that decision was made and i have relentlessly stuck to it.
i tried to go back on this choice 3 years ago, when i was still nursing 'B as a baby. and my body did NOT take it well.
we were invited to a small get together in a new town, by new friends, and trying to be polite i ate a bowl of spaghetti with hamburger in the sauce.
yikes.
what they say is true, it will make you SICK. sick sick sick.
so long story short, my husband, who IS a red-meat eater, lovingly and graciously allows me to solely serve white meat and veggie dishes in our home. (=
but in a few of my bon appetit issues, steak recipes have caught my eye. and a few times (twice) in the past 3 or 4 months i have taken it upon myself to prepare these recipes for him. much to his delight, i might add.
on each of these occasions this meat has appealed to me so much that i have sampled it and thought it mildly tasty. of course, given the afore mentioned incident, i only allowed myself to nibble.
now, in my last post i stated that yesterday i was planning on making the korean rice bowl, and that, indeed, i did. and of course, i had to try it.
holy cow! (no pun intended) this was the most incredible, mouth-watering bit of food that i have ever ever ever tasted. so i indulged in a few slivers of marinated and seared steak as i was cooking.
i then filled my bowl at dinner time w/a picture perfect proportion of what was exactly on the magazine page, and indulged in that as well.
in all, i completely blew out of the water any chance of not regretting what i had just done by WAY over-consuming what my body would allow me in the red meat eating category.
but as the good Lord would have it, i did not get sick in the slightest! this freedom from illness also allowed me to partake in the chocolate-mayonnaise cake (also in the previous post) that i made late last night for my hubby and i while we were held captivated by (with frequent oven-timer interruptions) the latest Lost episode on hulu. which, by the way, was a really really good one finally.
any-who, chocolate is another thing i have always [for unknown reasons] prided myself on not loving. at least aside from the occasional dark chocolate cacao bean infused bite i periodically get a taste for.
but like our dinner, fittingly, this particular cake was so fascinatingly rich and BEAUTIFUL, and the icing was smooth and the most delicious, lovely thing i have EVER made (in the kitchen), and i it looked JUST LIKE the picture! [i also took some pictures of my own of this monumental event and i will post them soon]
and so, delightfully, and with much enthusiasm, i dive head-first into a new chapter in my life.....
my love affair with these two most amazing entities: the steak and chocolate cake.

sincerely,

-C.

(=

bon appétit!

my stand-alone favorite magazine is bon appétit! (i say 'stand-alone', because i used to have 3 favorite magazines: cookie, domino, and bon appétit. but alas, the first two have fallen by the wayside and ceased print. cookie however, still maintains an incredible website. check it out!)

as i have mentioned before, i looooove experimenting in the kitchen. while i am typically re-vamping boring recipes or magically turning seemingly un-healthy ones into super-whole food recipes, or quite possibly making something up entirely, i thoroughly enjoy following every recipe in bon appétit precisely down to the smallest ingredient. [unless, of course, i don't have said ingredient. or i forget to grab it at the store. and in those cases, we improvise.]

never mind that L exists solely exists on peanut butter & co. peanut butter with honey, greek yogurt (with honey), veggie nuggets, chocolate milk, hummus, sweet potato fries, and granola bars. oh yeah, and oatmeal and sometimes cheese. and fruit.

okay, so his eating habits are really good. he will grow into the rest. (=

but never mind that my husband, who while he completely sees the beauty of what is produced, doesn't necessarily always share the thrill of the taste as much as i do. but he loves that i love it, and revels in my excitement and consumes and enjoys everything i cook. though truly he would prefer meatloaf and lasagna. and for that, i love him all the more.

and never mind that me, A, and more occasionally now 'B, are the only ones who fully appreciate the flavor of these wonderful dishes.

never mind all of these things, because the eating of them is not what is working for me here. don't get me wrong, i do eat what is made. we all do. and we love it. but the joy is in creating the dish. this is what works. and it works even better if i have little (or not so little) helpers to cook with! (=

so, here are a few of the recipes i have produced out of bon appétit:

chocolate peppermint bark cookies

spaghetti and meatballs all'amatriciana

cioppino-style roasted crab (the first time i have ever tried crab legs, A-mazing. my favorite bon appétit choice yet--and so pretty!)

linguine with bay scallops, fennel, and tomatoes (forgot to buy fennel and it was still really good. a little less basil would suffice)

easy chicken masala (amazing. and i think i used the crock-pot on this one too. and chicken breasts also. yummy!)

indian chicken wrap with cucumber raita (i actually ate a similar cucumber dish when i lived in india for a few months. it included red onions so i threw them in. i was short on yogurt and so instead of making the raita in a large batch i just cooked the ingredients with my rice and topped w/what yogurt i had after while it was warm. the taste was not lost using this method)

british flapjacks--wow. amazing. [i didn't find the 'golden syrup' and i used pure maple instead. it was really good, i got comments from our neighbors that they could smell the syrup! i have found other recipes that call for corn syrup instead of golden syrup. also, they will be soft when you take them out of the oven so don't keep baking them until you think they are 'done'. they will be crispy if you do that! but still delightful.]

(=

april's issue has been the best that i have received as of yet--

this week so far i have tackled the delicious chipotle roast chicken tacos with the poblano, potato, and corn gratin. this gratin was unbelievable. really.

no salt. no butter (only a small amount of olive oil to line the dish). nothing but peppers, potatoes, corn, and mozzarella. it was so good. and really very pretty to prepare.

later this week we are using the 'left-over' recipe for chipotle chicken tostadas. yum! (=

tomorrow for dinner we are having the korean rice bowl with steak, asparagus, and fried eggs. i am excited about that. i am also, for breakfast in the a.m., finally baking something i have been looking forward to baking since i got the incredibly packed april issue in the mail a few weeks ago--HOMEMADE STRAWBERRY POP-TARTS!!!!!!! can i tell you how thrilled this makes me???

A2 always has a box of kellogg's pop-tarts in the pantry (hidden b/c we don't use a lot of processed foods for the kiddos--or ourselves, sans his pop-tart stash) and when anyone happens to catch sight of it, they decidedly want one too. i usually say convert attention to the always loved oatmeal, A2 usually caves. [it never fails that on the saturdays i need to sleep in, i wake up to pop-tart breakfasted children. but happy children, right?] (= organic versions are sooo expensive! so as long as these are as scrumptious as they look, my 3 lovelies will now have their own pop-tart stash in the freezer! made by me. (=

also tomorrow [night] i am going to make a chocolate mayonnaise 3-layer cake.

are you hungry?

beyond creating and/or re-creating whole and fresh meals for this lovely family of five, my absolute FAVORITE is making cakes and cupcakes. especially cupcakes. there is just something so simple and satisfying in icing a perfect little piece of homemade, pure-ingredient cake with an undeniably mouth-watering spoonful of homemade, thick yet fluffy, vanilla-buttercream icing, or in this case, chocolate!

it makes my heart happy.

so do waffle iron waffles. (=

i added links to all of these yummy treats and dinners just in case you wanted in on the details. but here too is the all-time, no-fail ONLY vanilla-buttercream icing recipe that i use. ever.

ingredients:

1cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature

2T pure vanilla

1/2cup whole milk

32oz. confectioner's sugar

directions:

Beat butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and milk and beat while GRADUALLY adding sugar.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Bring to room temp. before icing.

(this makes a HUGE batch, but it is INCREDIBLE!!!)

okay, now i can't get food out of my head. i am totally going to have to share my favorite thai recipe too! but not today.

enjoy! (=