Neopolitan Birthday Cake

I  love making cakes! And I don't always have an excuse to make one. Because otherwise then I'd have to eat it myself and that just wouldn't be a good idea.  Or would it...??

So I love it when my husband's birthday comes so I can make a cake! And experiment on him and my family members! Hey, that's what they are for, right?!

I've been wanting to try a Neapolitan cake. But replace the traditional chocolate layer with a coffee flavored one and then dousing the whole cake in a rich chocolate ganache so that chocolate would still be incorporated in the cake.

Well the week of hubby's birthday was a crazy busy week. So late the night before his party I made the cakes. Everything was going so well....I found this new recipe on Pinterest that was fantastic! I had baked the vanilla and coffee flavored layers. I had the strawberry layer with 6 cupcakes, to use up the rest of the batter, in the oven. The cupcakes we finished but the cake needed a few more minutes. By this time, it was well after midnight and I was running out of steam fast. I check the cake once more and it needed just about 5 more minutes. It looked marvelous. I decided, in a horribly bad decision making moment, NOT to set the timer and that I'd just check the time on my computer that I was on while waiting for the cakes to finish....well, 5 minutes turning into almost 5 HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not good.

I completely fell asleep! And funny thing is I kept smelling burnt strawberry cake while I was sleeping and asking myself if I'd taken it out of the oven! Well, then hubby woke up to the smell of charred cake and asked if I was done baking-of course now it's 5 am! This naturally jolted me out of sleep in a panic realizing what happened and I ran to the oven to remove the large, hockey puck strawberry cake.

What a sad sight!! I was not happy. Especially because strawberry is my husbands favorite flavor and now it was ruined!  But I was too tired to do anything at that moment so I went to bed, now dreaming of how to fix this as I had used up all my eggs and strawberries and there wasn't even enough time to make another one.

So, I had to use the coffee and vanilla layers and between each layer I did a thin coat of chocolate ganache and then fresh strawberries-that I ran to the store to get that morning!-and then covered the whole thing in ganache! Yum.

I really like the way it came out. Of course, with most homemade cakes, they tend to be a bit dense but I found if you do not refrigerate the cake, but keep it at room temperate it is not so "hard/dense from the cold.

I would like to try this again WITH the strawberry layer though! At least we got the try the cupcakes, which were good. I will definitely use this recipe again!
Lesson learned: ALWAYS set the timer!!!

                                                                             



Sorry, this was a cellphone picture!

Lesson in Leftovers

The dreaded word... "What's for dinner mom??"  Her reply, "Leftovers!" Dun, dun,duuuun....
Growing up, my mother never, ever wasted food. Even if it had green fuzz on it. Surely there was something we could still do with it! No, I'm just kidding!!!! (We never ate anything with green fuzz!!!!)

But rest assured, if you didn't scrape that bowl of batter until it was sparkling clean again or get every micro crumb of cookie dough onto that last scoop of cookie you'd hear about it! And rightly so. She was trying to teach and train us not to be wasteful. And for that I am extremely grateful.

See my mom went to a very special school, it was called "Mommy School." That is where she learned alllll these incredible, highly secretive techniques and information about...everything in life! Hahaha!! Well, that is just a joke me and my mom have. Because when I was little, every time she'd do something incredible or clever after I had tried hopelessly to do it, I asked her... "Where'd you learn how to do that??... Mommy School or  something??" And her reply would always be, yes! What can I say folks, God gave me the most awesomest (Yes, that's a word for right now!) mom in the world!!

But back to leftovers. In my VBS lesson with my (late) friend Porgie and the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, a verse stood out to me.. about leftovers! I've read and heard this verse many a time I'm sure of it, but I guess now was when the Lord really wanted me to see it!  That verse is John 6:12 "...Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."  I don't really need to elaborate but Jesus is telling us not to be wasteful and eat your leftovers!! I am going to use this with my kids if they ever whine about not wanting leftovers!

I know a lot of people are not keen about leftovers. I personally don't mind leftovers. Except for maybe leftover pasta with sauce. It just never tastes right. Pasta should fresh and hot right out of the pot to plate within seconds!  But anyways...

You just have to be creative!! I've made many an interesting dinner from leftovers. Maybe not all great, but hey, it took Thomas Edison a 1,000 ways of trying before he invented the light bulb!
You can use up leftovers in several new and fun ways.

Here's a few ideas I've tried that you can create with any variety of leftover meats and vegetables or whatever other fragments you have in your fridge!

• Fried Rice
• Quesadillas
• Burritos
• Pizzas
• "Antipasto" Salads
• Quiches or Fritatas
• Soups
• Calzones
• Pot Pies
• Baked Pasta Dishes

Leftovers are your "oyster"! Happy Leftover-ing to you and yours!!

Let me know how you use your leftovers in a new or fun way!

Porgie. It's What's for Dinner!

Porgie! Now that is just a fun word to say, admit it. At VBS (Vacation Bible School) this year at our church, I taught the 3-5 year old's class. In preparing for my night to teach, my lesson was on Jesus feeding of the 5,000 and the boy who gave his five loaves and two fishes.

In an effort to grab the kid's attention I decided to bring in 5 real loaves of bread and 2 real small fish-or porgies!! Working in the restaurant business has its perks. So, I asked our seafood salesman for, well, two small fish! He gave me two porgies. For free! Even better. I think the kids thought Porgie was neat at any rate as they poked at its eyeballs! I filleted one so they could see what part you eat and left the other one whole. It was a fun lesson to teach! I find that I personally always learn better with visuals so hopefully they might remember this when they are older.

Porgies are described as a "good eating fish". It's basically a white fish. I'd never had porgie before. Let alone gut and fillet one...or many other fish for that matter. But here I had these two porgies that needed to be eaten and there was only one way to do that!

Gutting and filleting is a messy business. And smelly. So, I wrapped my face with a dish towel, put my gloves on and placed Porgie inside a trash bag on my cutting board. I started by scaling the fish, which produces scales flying every which way on you and around the room! Hence, the trash bag. Next, I cut the head off. This is where it starts to get smellier...pulled out the guts. By now I can still smell it through my fabulous dish towel of a bandanna.(Gag.) I quickly discarded all the guts and head in a Ziploc which cut back on the smell. Then following the bones/backbone carefully and slowing filleted the first piece of porgie! The last piece is left with all the bones and tail. This one is slightly easier to fillet because now you can see the bones and just follow it all the way down to the tail.

I left the skin on the fillets just because it's easier. Skinning fish is no biggy but because they were so small it's a little harder to skin. This was my first solo gutting/filleting of a fish so I didn't want to push my luck!

Now to cook them! I made a Greek mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and fresh garlic and poured it all over the porgie and broiled them. It was quick, easy and very tasty! Hubby approved as well.

I'd definitely have porgie again!! Here's some pictures of Porgie before and after. Yum!

                                                          The before and after of Porgie.

Greek Style Porgie! Olive oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic and oregano!

Vietnamese Venture!

Recently my hubby and I ate at a teeny tiny Vietnamese restaurant a few miles from our apartment. It was soo good! I'd never really had Vietnamese before, but I figured it'd be close enough to Chinese that it couldn't be too scary.  We ordered the Crsipy Spring Rolls, Grilled Pork Vermicelli and Lemongrass Chicken. It really was ALL delicious but what we loved the most was the Pork Vermicelli. Which was angel hair rice noodles, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, basil, crushed peanuts and served with a side of traditional Vietnamese home made sauce! It was all so WONDERFUL.
 The flavors all just joined hands together in your mouth and skipped around in circles! The cool rice noodles, the crisp carrots, lettuce and cucumbers, the nutty, crunchy peanuts, the tangy-sweet and crispy pork and the sauce was light, but had a little kick of heat(just a dab) and sweet undertones, without being too sweet. And there was fresh mint also, which I'm not usually a huge fan of but it worked so well with all these other flavors. 
So. I just HAD to try and duplicate this dish! I did a little research and found out I needed fish sauce for the meat.(I substituted chichen thighs for the pork. And I don't see why you couldn't try beef as well.)Well I didn't have fish sauce. So I used oyster sauce. Which, come to find out is completely different then fish sauce but, work with whatchya got, right? It worked very well. The traditional sauce is so easy to make might I add. A perfect meal for a hot summer day with the cool rice noodles and crispy veggies. I will have to try this again with the fish sauce next time! It came out wonderful! Best of all, hubby loved it!

One Dish Chicken, Beans & Rice

Tonight I wasn't feeling so hot. I have some kind of head cold. I mean really, it's summer!! Who gets head colds in the middle of summer?! Me. So not right. Anyways. I was not in any mood or shape to make anything, for that matter. But-it needed to be done.
So, I took my mom's onion soup pork chop and rice recipe(yum.) and instead of the onion soup I added taco seasoning, cut the water back and added tomato sauce and a half can of small red beans. I blopped(That's right, that's a very fancy culinary term. Blopped.) my chicken thighs on top, covered it and threw it in the oven. Took all of about 5 minutes or less.
Now this does take about an hour to cook but it gave me some time to rest before hubs got home.
I was happy with how it came out and definitely a time saver dinner keeper! Soft, sticky rice with beans and I ended up shredding the chicken a little bit too and it was a great. The leftovers would make great burrittos or soup too!!

One Dish Chicken, Beans & Rice
1 cup rice
1/2 c water
1/2c tomato sauce
3/4 or 1 full envelope taco seasonings
1/2 can of beans-red, black, whatever
4 chicken thighs or breasts
s&p to taste



Put first five ingredients in 9x13, mixing slightly.
Add beans.
Add chicken thighs or breasts and arrange.
Cover tightly with foil.
Bake @ 350 for 1 hour.
When chicken is cooked through and water has been absorbed it's done.
 Enjoy.

Valentine Dinner

We decided to stay in for Valentine's Day this year. It's a little over-rated, but, at any rate, an excuse to do something special or different. I tried to do a full 6 course dinner for my hubby. It was FULL. And tiring. Way too much up and down, back and forth to really enjoy our time together, but I had fun cooking and planning it. By the time the entrees were served I was so tired I didnt want to get up again!  Maybe next time we'll just do a 3 course meal; or better yet maybe I can get my hubby in the kitchen to cook for me! Not so sure about that last one though...I think he'd rather starve then pick up a pot or pan! Haha!

   A beautiful centerpiece, provided by my hubby!

                                            

  First Course: French Onion Soup with Gruyre & Swiss cheeses



      Second Course: Lover's Scallops~Twin pan seared sea scallops
over wilted spinach, bacon, toasted pine nuts, shredded paremsan

Fourth Course: Grilled NY Strip Steak, red winereduction, mashed potaotes,
 crispy julienned brussel sprouts
(bad picture.. computer wouldn't let me use the better one. grr.)

         

Fifth Course: Mesculin greens, roasted garlic vinaigrette,

 balsamic asparagus, dried cranberries and shaved parmesan

Sixth Course:  Raspberry Linzer Tort with almond crust and vanilla ice cream

 (Sadly, I was so tired by the time we had dessert I couldnt muster up

 the energy to take another picture, or one more bite for that matter!)

1 Avocado, 2 Avocado...

3 Avocado....16.. Avocados?! So what do you do with 16, extremely ripe avocados?? Well, how about avocado and crab bisque for starters. I am actually just starting to like avocados so it's still a little new for me. AND, I'm NOT a huge crab fan either. BUT, this was surprisingly very good! Rich and creamy tones from the avocado and cream and the sweet crab added just enough texture and flavor to compliment it beautifully.
Then I found a recipe for avocado chocolate truffles! Yes, you heard that right. It was interesting, very rich again. But you couldnt taste the avocado very much at all. Anything's good with chocolate though, right?! Well, it must of been an avocado kindo dayo! My sister had invited me and the hubster over for dinner that evening and she texted me asking to pick up 2 avocados on the way over!! I had to do a double take. I had been seeing green all day!
My selection at the grocery store was not very good, I tried to find the ripest ones amongst the mossy-green rocks!
Upon arrival at sister's house, she informed me she was making an avocado-chocolate frosting!!! How weird!! It was very similar to the recipe I had just used for the truffles earlier. For the frosting they substituted an avocado in place of butter for a healthier alternative...hmmmmmm...
We whipped it up and spread it on fresh chocolate cupcakes. We also spread some with your trademark chocolate canned frosting.(I love that stuff, I dont know why.)
We then fed them to our hubbies....
Verdict? Not so much. They did not appreciate any kind of healthy alternative with this little switch-a-roo here!! Haha! It was quite entertaining.
In the end, if I hadn't known there was avocado in my chocolate frostng, I most likely would not have been able to tell. Although I think using a very ripe avocado would have helped it a bit.
But at least now I know what to make with very ripe avocados!!!