Thank you Mum and Dad!

My parents got me a double boiler for Christmas! ^_^

Christmas Presents

After much debate on how to cheaply send quite a few of my friends Christmas presents, I finally decided on attempting to make some chocolate bars. I bought some molds and went to work.


I have a TREMENDOUS addiction to S'mores anything. My favorite desserts include S'mores ice cream sandwiches and S'mores cupcakes. So... sorry friends, out of some slight self interest, I made you S'mores chocolate bars (and horded several for myself). However, making a chocolate candy bar by tempering some chocolate, melting some marshamallow and opening a box of graham crackers to make these creations seemed too simple and involved enough to be considered a present. To bump up the challenge, I decided to make my own marshmallow fluff. Other than that, I pretty much just followed the recipe from Not So Humble Pie.

Some thoughts: I think I made the chocolate bar too thick. You couldn't really taste the marshmallow and graham cracker.  Ah well, I have no qualms about making them again. ^_^

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Dinner

Happy Holidays All!

I realized recently that I have not been keeping my blog up-to-date. (Again!) My New Year's resolution is to post about my experiments ASAP. I've gotten into a bad habit these past few months of choosing gaming over logging these fun-time cooking adventures.

Lots of firsts for me this Christmas. Number one: I made prime rib. Number two: I made a yule log. What the hell was I thinking?! Not all is lost! It all came out amazing... and you couldn't see the cracks in my yule log which is always a plus.

Things to do if I attempt these recipes again: 1) Get a new oven. 2) Get a new oven. Ok, I should explain... Our oven does not keep an even temperature in addition to not actually being the correct temperature. This made (at the very least) the yule log way too difficult.

The spread: prime rib with an herb paste, potatoes, glazed carrots, green beans with bacon, and french onion soup. If the holiday gathering is small, I am inclined to make the prime rib again (purely financial reasons). The potatoes were good, nothing fancy; just cooked in the drippings from the roast. Green beans were pretty standard (well, for Southern green beans). The carrots are now a required side dish at any holiday meal. Thankfully, they are super simple to make.  The French onion soup recipe was different from my previous one, but I like the recipe I had previously posted better. This one was good... just not great.

As far as the desserts go for flavor, the gingerbread cake... is a must try! It was fantabulous!  I made it with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting. The yule log was very tiramisu-like in flavor. Although, I am inspired to try filling it with different creams. This will also give me opportunity to practice baking and rolling the actual cake (without cracking it). I want to try a hazelnut cream as well as a peppermint cream. If anyone has any tips on not cracking the cake when rolling it, let me know.

Herb-Roasted Prime Rib & Potatoes

 Glazed Carrots with Bacon and Pecans

 Bittersweet Chocolate Yule Log

Classic Gingerbread Cake

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving was pretty good again this year. We used the same turkey recipe as the last few years. I did vary up the side dishes a bit: broccoli and cheese casserole and cauliflower gratin. I also tried making stuffed mushrooms, but they didn't have a very good flavor. I will definitely make the broccoli and cheese casserole again, but the cauliflower needs something better. It was very bland (granted they look gorgeous).

 Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Spinach and Goat Cheese

Cauliflower Gratin

Broccoli and Cheese Casserole

However, I did make this amazing pumpkin-bourbon cheesecake. I think I ate 3/4 of it. Sooo delicious. Definitely an autumn dessert winner. Granted, I didn't homogenize the cream cheese enough and I did over bake it a smidge (I had a nasty crack on the top).

Pumpkin-Bourbon Cheesecake with Graham-Pecan Crust

Autumn Cupcakes

I had been promising my lab that I would make them cupcakes for quite a few weeks (not to mention they make the best guinea pigs). I wanted to try out some fall cupcakes. There are two flavors that scream "autumn" to me: caramel apple and pumpkin spice.

Group meetings are never better than when one has a cupcake. Dull data becomes interesting. (Granted, that's probably the early afternoon cupcake sugar rush as opposed to the data becoming more interesting.) I did make an interesting observation: the men preferred the pumpkin spice, whereas the women preferred the caramel apple. Take that as you will, but possibly consider that when making either of these cupcakes for a gathering.

You can find the recipes here: caramel apple cupcakes & pumpkin spice cupcakes. I did make the pumpkin graham crackers that Cupcake Project lists for the pumpkin spice cupcakes, but instead of putting them on top, I crumbled them up on the frosting.

Note: I seem to have lost the caramel apple cupcake recipe, as soon as I find it, I will edit this post.

Edit: I have found the recipe! I had to dig through the internet until I found it, but I found it nonetheless! It was on the Cupcake Friday Project. Enjoy!

I've decided I'm sick to death of just copying/pasted really tasty recipes that I find. I want to actually start commenting on them, devising my own recipes... I don't want this to just be an index of recipes that I happen to enjoy. (Granted, when I'm at the store and I know what I'm having for dinner, I do like being able to pull up my blog to figure it out.)

On that note, Thanksgiving just passed. I tried out some new recipes. I will be sure to post them in the next few days.

Love you all!

Lentil Soup

Rating: 4 of 5 

Notes: It's a smidge on the spicy side, I'd like it to be more lentil soup. 

Ingredients:

•     3 slices bacon (about 3 ounces), cut into 1/4-inch pieces
•     1 large onion , chopped fine (about 1 1/2 cups)
•     2 medium carrots , peeled and chopped medium (about 1 cup)
•     3 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
•     1 teaspoon ground cumin
•     1 teaspoon ground coriander
•     1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•     1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
•     1 can diced tomatoes (14 1/2 ounces), drained
•     1 bay leaf
•     1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
•     1 cup lentils (7 ounces), rinsed and picked over
•     1 teaspoon table salt
•     Ground black pepper
•     1/2 cup dry white wine
•     4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
•     1 1/2 cups water
•     1 1/2 teaspoons lemon lime juice
•     3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves

Directions:

1. Fry bacon in large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onion and carrots; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes, bay leaf, and thyme; cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in lentils, salt, and pepper to taste; cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook until vegetables are softened and lentils have darkened, 8 to 10 minutes. Uncover, increase heat to high, add wine, and bring to simmer. Add chicken broth and water; bring to boil, cover partially, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until lentils are tender but still hold their shape, 30 to 35 minutes; discard bay leaf.
2. Puree 3 cups soup in blender until smooth, then return to pot; stir in lemon juice and heat soup over medium-low until hot, about 5 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro and serve, garnishing each bowl with some of remaining cilantro.