romantic dinner

I'm truly disappointed in how these photos came out, but this meal was just too special for me not to talk about it just because it was kind of a hot mess for the camera. This year, with Nathan back at school, we've kind of scaled back on our big special occasion dinners, and have made fancy meals at home rather than shelling out the big bucks at a restaurant. For Valentine's Day we made this duck breast with orange gastrique, aligot mashed potatoes, braised leeks and then a lightening-fast chocolate mousse for dessert.

red velvet beet cookie and cream cheese ice cream sandwiches

I don't really like beets all that much, which you may have picked up on, considering that every time my food co-op forces them upon me, I reluctantly come up with some sort of way to cook them for which I can muster only minimal enthusiasm. Yeah that's usually how it goes. Not a total clunker in the bunch, but nothing that made me jump up and say "YES! This is the beet I have been waiting for and now we are in LOVE," and I'm beginning to think it's just never gonna happen.




So basically, this is me giving up on making a "beet dish" that I would really enjoy and just hiding them in a big fat chocolatey cookie. Of course, you occasionally hear about people making "all natural" red velvet cake with beets instead of red food coloring (which is actually more traditional, believe it or not). I could have gone that route, with a delicious cream cheese frosting, but I really wanted to whip up David Lebowitz's cream cheese ice cream, which made me think of ice cream sandwiches, which led me to these red velvet beet cookies.

flourless chocolate cake

As you may already know, my brother has celiac and can't eat wheat, so I am always on the look out for good gluten free recipes. This year, when Laura and I threw our annual joined forces for our annual birthday bash, Matt was home for spring break and therefore was able to come share in the celebration.

Great, obviously, but that also meant that I wanted to make a birthday cake that he could eat. Luckily, I'd been holding onto a flourless chocolate cake recipe by David Lebowitz for just an occasion, and it did not disappoint.

chocolate coffee oatmeal

chocolate coffee oatmeal

This isn't much of a post, except to say that I recently experimented with making coffee chocolate oatmeal as part of my soft food diet. I cooked the oatmeal on the stove top with hot coffee and milk, stirring in some Hershey's cocoa powder. It was surprisingly disappointing. It got gluey and sticky, and the cocoa powder clumped up a bit. I also think it could have used some added sugar to counteract the bitterness of the coffee.

I still think this could be good, but in this iteration, it simply wasn't. Bleaugh.

avocado chocolate pudding

So in the event that you break your jaw, you'll probably end up googling your condition. Before too long you'll find the number one food blog on the subject, Jaws Wired Shut. I have to admit, I didn't spend all that much time poking around there, mainly because finding a bunch of specialized recipes would mean accepting that this injury would be defining my diet for a significant amount of time. Even after the two weeks of wires turned into four, I was still in a bit of denial. Frankly, I wanted to avoid dwelling on my situation, and a lot of the suggestions were things I figured out on my own, like adding peanut butter and bananas to my milkshakes.

However, I did find a couple of ideas during my limited browsing. For one, I blended one of the cupcakes Laura and I bought for our friend Matt's birthday from Magnolia bakery into a delicious milk shake. The second meal I prepared is currently the most recently posted entry, a avocado chocolate pudding, playfully called "chocomole." It sounds pretty bizarre, I admit, but the picture looked just like a creamy, rich chocolate pudding should.


avocado chocolate pudding

See?

All you need is a food processor and a few simple ingredients, and you can transform an avocado into a very unlikely dessert. I substituted cocoa powder for the 3½ tablespoons raw cacao powder, but other than that I followed the recipe as written. One avocado, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼-½ cup water, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ⅓ cup maple syrup, and ¼ teaspoon salt simply blended together in the food processor = pudding! It sounds crazy, but it really does work.

It was good, but it had a rather oily texture that became rather unpleasant after awhile. I poured some half and half on top, which helped with the sliminess, but it was still a bit too cinnamonny. I think that this is a rather clever way to make a more healthy and nutritious chocolate pudding, but it was a little strange and probably wouldn't appeal to people who aren't on soft or liquid diets.


half and half makes everything better

This wasn't a failure by any means, but there was definitely something slightly off about it. Just not quite the pudding you're used to. Which I suppose shouldn't be surprising, since it's made from avocados.

birthday cakes

a gluten free cheesecake for Matt

The first cake I'd like to talk about is this one, which my brother Matt and I whipped up Friday night for his birthday party. In addition to being delicious, it was also gluten free, not that you could tell. If you have any sort of experience with gluten free baking, that is pretty much the highest praise you can give. Matt pretty much handled the crust, while I took care of the filling. Between this and our cheesey bean dip and guacamole, I'd say we made a pretty good team. Stranger things have happened.

For this cake, I kind of created my own Frankenstein of recipe, combining bits and pieces of three different desserts. I got the cheesecake filling one place, and the gluten-free crust and (the most basic idea for the) strawberry topping at another. Surprisingly, the three elements combined to make one great cake. I baked it in what I guess was a 9 or 10 inch cake form at 350 degrees.

Strawberry Ricotta Sour Cream Cheesecake
adapted from bakespace.com and glutenfreeguide.com
Crust
1⅓ cups flour or Gluten Free Baking Mix such as Pamela's (I used a gluten free cake mix and subsequently cut down on the brown sugar)
a scant ½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup cold butter, cut into pieces
⅔ cup finely chopped pecans

Stir the flour mix and brown sugar together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until fine crumbs form. Stir in the nuts and pat into your pan, covering the bottom and pressing up the sides. Try not to leave too much dough in the corners of the pan.

Filling
16 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz cream cheese, softened
16 ounces sour cream
1½ cups white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup butter, melted

Beat together all the ingredients and pour into the crust. Place a piece of foil or a pan below the cake to catch any drippings that might leak from the pan. Bake at 350 degrees until the filling starts to solidify. Let cool on wire rack for 30 minutes and then refrigerate for at least four to five hours before serving.

Topping
10 or so strawberries, sliced
⅔ cup strawberry jam
⅓ cup sugar
pinch of salt
cracked black pepper

Simmer jam and sliced strawberries in a saucepan over medium heat with sugar, salt and freshly cracked black pepper until jam is syrupy and strawberries are soft. Pour over the cheesecake after you remove it from the oven.

Of course, that is not to say that things went off without a hitch. First of all, I didn't allot nearly enough time to cooling the cheesecake, so it was still slightly warm when we sliced it up for party guests at around 11:30. Plan ahead for cheesecake, people! Secondly, the recipe for the crust claims that you may have enough crust for a second smaller pie. They are not kidding. If you like your cheesecake to only have crust on the bottom, you could get away with making half as much crust. If you want some crust on the sides, you could absolutely get away with ⅔ of the recipe, and I've scaled the above measurements accordingly. Finally, do not, I repeat DO NOT, bake the strawberry topping onto your cheesecake. Some recipes call for baking a sour cream topping onto your cheesecake midway through the baking process. That might work, but baking on a luscious strawberry jam is only going to dry it out. It will still taste good, but it will look shriveled and sad. Don't do it.

The other cake is not as good as the cheesecake in my opinion, but if you are the type of person who loves chocolate cake, you might disagree. Laura pulled up this recipe over two years ago by searching for a "simple chocolate cake," and I was blown away by how good it was. Since she first made it, I've tried to replicate her results at least three times, but for whatever reason, it's never quite as good as I remember it. However it's still a good chocolate cake with delicious chocolate frosting, and its easy. The first time we made it, we made a pattern with red hot candies in the chocolate frosting, and that was surprisingly amazing. The heat of the candies leeched into the cake, and the moisture of the frosting was absorbed by the red hots, creating a surprisingly balanced cinnamon taste and a thick chocolately frosting. I vow never to make the cake without them again. (I once tried baking the red hots into the cake itself, but that proved disastrous.) I most recently made this for Laura and my 24th birthday party. Even without red hots, it turned out pretty good, but I was a little tipsy when I made the frosting and I didn't take the time to properly whisk in the powdered sugar, which made it a little lumpy. Otherwise, it was good and chocolatey, if totally overshadowed by Dave's amazing and picture perfect chocolate cheesecake with its buttery chocolate crust.

Simple Chocolate Cake
adapted from cooks.com
Cake
1¼ cups sugar
¾ cups butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup milk
6 oz. of semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted and cooled

Beat sugar, butter and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. Stir in melted chocolate. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Beat the dry ingredients and the milk into creamed mixture alternating between the two ingredients. Pour batter into a pan (mine is 10 inches around, I think), and bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Frosting
½ cups butter
2 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla
⅛ tsp. salt
2-3 tbsp. milk
2½ c. powdered sugar, divided
red hot candies, optional

Melt butter and baking bar in microwave for 45 seconds or on stove top, and stir to mix well. Let cool to room temperature. Beat 1 cup powdered sugar, vanilla and salt into chocolate mixture until creamy. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar alternately with milk until smooth. Do not frost the cake until it has cooled for at least 20 minutes. Decorate with red hot candies.

I'll leave you with this shot of Laura and I blowing out the candles on our birthday cake.


making all our wishes come true