hubby's 29th!

I had some of his favorite dishes planned for dinner. But, he had other ones in mind. He got word today that he's going to Germany in a little more than a week for a twenty-four day business trip. So, he was rushing to get paperwork done, thus, making for a long work day. In addition, he had already made plans to hold his fantasy football draft with a bunch of his buddies at their local hangout, since I really had not planned to be home.

So I spent the day making this easy chocolate trifle using the homemade brownies in the previous post, chocolate mousse I made with heavy whipping cream and a box of instant pudding, actual instant pudding, and some whipped cream. I garnished with some chocolate cigars. It didn't really look pretty (quite ugly actually) since I kind of made a miniature trifle, but he seemed really pleased with the little taste he was able to have between a change of clothes and looking for his draft kit. I told him I would sing for him when he gets home, which, really isn't a treat.

I made some sticky roast chicken and the sweet italian sausage stuffing pictured below. The recipe can be found here, I'm not sure if I've blogged about this recipe before, but, I will always volunteer to make stuffing at Thanksgiving because of this recipe. It is truly wonderful and decadent; sure to make you poke a notch on your belt. It also makes a ton if you don't stuff your bird, so great for leftovers. Happy Birthday Bub!

basic brownies

Happy post 4th! Having been saturated with every which way to make ribs on tv, in magazines, etc., my very own husband, made a batch oh so delicious very good ribs. I don't know what he did, something about mustard and a spice rub, but jimeny crickets, they were even good cold. I had to work, but I made a batch of brownies from my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I had all the ingredients and they were so super easy, I didn't even need my mixer. Her recipe can be found here. I prefer this more fudgy brownie over the cakey kind, but next time, I'd probably experiment with a better chocolate, I used 2 4 oz. ghiradelli bittersweet bars, but maybe callebaut or something of the like next time. I bet these would even be more decadent with a ganache or a cream cheese frosting.


I have not been very inspired in the cooking department lately. Maybe once I get my thyroid under better control, life will run more smoothly. I have even seriously thought about cutting my hours at work and hiring a housekeeper to conserve my energy. In fact, I have definitely decided on the latter, and am excited at the prospect of me not having to scrub bathrooms and tile floors each week. My husband joked, "now, this isn't the sort of deal where you clean before the housekeeper comes to really clean, is it?" Haha, probably. Below, lifted straight out of the pan, slightly warm, because there's nothing like a warm chocolate something with some cold, cold milk.

cherry stained hands

I will forever be envious to people who own cherry pitters. I just got through reading a book called Seeing Me Naked by Liza Palmer and she writes about an amazing cherry clafouti; she even provides a recipe at the end of the book. Coincidentally, I was walking through my local grocery store when they had bags and bags of them on sale. Upon, getting home and popping one in my mouth, they were one of the best on sale cherry batches I had ever bought. I was so excited. Cherry clafouti is a French dessert, a cross between a pancake and custard. I hear that, traditionally, you keep the pits in. I found this recipe through foodnetwork.com by the man, Alton Brown.

I found several ways via the world wide web on how to pit a cherry beyond using a paring knife, like the paper clip method. Four cherries later, and many more curse words, contemplating just a leaving the pits in or dumping out the cherry halves that had the pits, I found the best way is to split the cherry in half, grab a pointy end, and pull the pit out. To the right, my pitiful pitting job.

After making the recipe (not in a dutch oven), instead of dumping the cherries in the pan and shaking them in a flat layer (mostly out of impatience and frustration), I would probably face all of them, with the open side down, in a single layer. I would probably also add some almond extract for some depth. Over all though, this would make an awesome brunch or dessert dish. I tried the dish with a serving of whipped cream, then, a dusting of powdered sugar. Go with the powdered sugar. And every cherry season from here on out, I vow to make cherry clafouti.

chocolate chip cookies & thunderstorms

The thunder and lightening are insane here in the southwest. I don't know what it is about the nature of thunder around here, but they're like incredibly loud mini earthquakes. On top of that, my husband warns me tonight, before he retreats to the bedroom, "if you think a tornado is coming, take the dogs and hide in the downstairs bathroom." WTF? How do I know a tornado is approaching?!?! I'm from an island, I know what to do in a hurricane or a tsunami, but a tornado, that's totally a foreign concept to me. If this darn place is such a tornado hazard, why don't we have basements around here? I'm still puzzled over what my snoring husband is going to do for survival if there is a tornado. So, little paranoid me has got the weather page up, I've got an army blanket, a container of water, half a loaf of bread, and a few magazines in our little downstairs bathroom (I don't understand why I can't hide in our more than twice the size master bathroom). I beg of you to laugh at me. I hope I never, ever, have to cuddle up in the downstairs bathroom with two dogs under an army blanket.

These thunder storms compelled me to make something comforting. I needed to ease my mind. I had to make chocolate chip something, my husband had been begging me to use the gourmet chips I picked up on one of my city trips. So, keeping it simple, I made some chocolate chip cookies though I contemplated making muffins for a good hour. I believe that simplicity + top notch ingredients (nielsen-massey vanilla, king arthur flour, etc.) = one pretty darn good cookie. I didn't use my normal amazingly soft chocolate chip recipe, because I was too scared to go to the store for an ingredient (there is also a golf ball size hail warning, I don't know how to drive in hail) so I used this one. Let's just say, that I had a cookie each time I took a batch out. Four or five batches and one glass of iced milk and I'm totally paying for it. To the right, a few of them, straight out of the oven.

Today was apparently a good cooking show day for me. I was watching Throwdown tonight and making puffy tacos is now a priority of mine. They also had a Top Chef marathon while I was doing some housecleaning, and oh man, that Chef Tom Colicchio, I think I'm destined to marry him in my next life, I find him oh so dreamy, don't ask me why. I realize my recipes haven't been gourmet or anything just yet, I'm still easing my way back into cooking but stay tuned, I've got a pile of bon apetit recipes just waiting to be tested. Trust me (like you can really trust a girl who has half a loaf of bread in her bathroom), it's going to get good.

pumpkin crunch pick me up

I thought my dogs were being extremely messy with their water jugs, they were sent to their kennel. It turns out, my kitchen was flooding thanks to my dishwasher, right smack dab in the middle of me making dinner. I really can't explain how or why, but water was coming out everywhere (I have a theory that it's because we had to get matching appliances for our new house instead of the builder's already installed white appliances, thus, it's my husband, the pseudo plumber's fault), but as I rushed to clean up the counters, a glass bottle fell to the floor and shattered everywhere. By the time I picked up the big pieces of glass, my husband came home to start clearing my cleaning supplies from under the sink. In the span of 2 hours we managed to lose the cap off of the milk and spill it all over the fridge, handwash the full load of dishes that were supposed to be going in the dishwasher, give two doggie baths, clean two doggie kennels, lose a leash, sweep, vacuum, mop the floor only to do it all over again, break then fix the garbage disposal (totally unrelated to the leaky whatever you call it). I joked that I should buy another lottery ticket and my husband jumped to the door and said, "I'm locking it and we're strapping ourselves to the couch, who knows what else could happen tonight."

To ease my frustration, I'm baking something. I don't think what I'm making can really be classified as baking; I totally just dumped a few things in a bowl, gave it a mix, dumped more things on top and put it in the oven. It took more time and effort to melt butter and whip some heavy cream for the topping. While I was dumping, my oven stopped preheating three times, just on it's own. So while I'm typing this, I keep walking over to the oven so I can make sure it doesn't turn off just all of a sudden. What the heck is going on with my house? With me?

Anyway, I've been making Pumpkin Crunch Cake for fall and winter potlucks since my parents allowed me alone time in the kitchen. To the left, a picture of it in the dish, it is essentially an upside down cake. The recipe itself probably isn't even blog worthy but considering how the evening is gone, it's something you can't physically mess up, unless of course, the oven dies on you. In the last few years, if someone else is running the Thanksgiving showdown, I always make dessert, pumpkin pie with homemade crust and homemade roasted pumpkins, pecan pie, even pumpkin cheesecake you know typical t-day fare. But, if everyone's coming over to my house, this is what I make, I can do it the night before put it in the fridge and forget about it. For a prettier presentation, you could probably divide the batter into 2 springform pans. If you're like me, you always have eggs and butter in the fridge, so keeping the rest of the ingredients in the pantry is a cinch. The most important thing is everyone seems to like it. One day, I'll figure out how to make it from scratch, without the cake mix, with roasted pumpkins, but for now, especially tonight, why mess with a sure thing?

mango tree memories

I grew up on an island full of mango trees. Every June, when the weak ones couldn’t hang on, my parents’ friends would bring over paint buckets full of deep green ones to pickle. More buckets would arrive if there was someone visiting from California. I never liked pickled mangos but apparently if we had a real county fair, my mom would get a blue ribbon for her pickled mangos. The mangos would eventually turn into a golden orange, marked with a shade of red. During that part of the mango season, my dad would slice them up after every meal and serve them up for dessert. We would all lust after the seed.

I’ve been longing for these sweet mangos ever since. Where I live now, the skins are very deceiving and I am hopeful each time I slice into one, but, I always end up disappointed. While I was grocery shopping yesterday, I saw container of sliced, frozen mango halves so I bought them. I had a golden pineapple waiting for me at home (if you’ve never had a Maui gold pineapple, you’re missing out) and thought that this would make a good Pineapple Mango Upside Down Cake. Originally, I saw a recipe in my Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, but I found one I liked better on foodnetwork.com via Michael Chiarello. I’ve never made pineapple upside down cake before, but will be sure to make this one from now on. I'm having dreams about a coco(nut)-pine-mango upside down cake.

I left out the macadamia nuts, which I found to be a good decision. Instead of the round pan the recipe calls for, I went with an 8x8 pan making the look of the cake a little more updated. The juices ended up leaking through my square pan so I placed a cookie sheet at the bottom of the oven halfway through cooking. I will do that at the beginning of cooking, next time. The cake itself was tender and moist, and not overly sweet. With the addition of vanilla extract, I might actually double the cake recipe and cover it with chocolate sour cream frosting one of these days. The “upside down” part was very good and complemented the cake perfectly (upside down pictured to the right with a drizzle of brown sugar sauce). I took the core out of the rings with a two inch cookie cutter. Forsaking design for uniformity, I would chop all of the pineapple instead of leaving them in rings and mix it with the chopped mango. Eat this cake straight out of the oven, it doesn't have the same taste once it has been refrigerated! This was tropical heaven with a side of whipped cream, but better I’m betting, if it was served a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.