A Worldly Epicurean's Delight - Mexican Dipping Feast

Yes my friends a fabulous event to explore culinary tastes and adventures from around the world. This time the beautiful and talented DK at Culinary Bizaar

brought us a tasty piece of Mexico. The only thing I regret is it required making everything Vegetarian. Though I love vegetables I'm very much not a Vegetarian and prefer most of my food with a little meat in it. Still nonetheless I managed to create something fun and tasty.
You can check out the event here.

So you are probably wondering what tasty fun. Can you guess just with this picture of some ingredients? No?

How about now?
okay enough playing around you've probably figured it out already.
I decided to make some layered bean dip, homemade guacamole, and fresh salsa.
All topped off with some home made chips; frying provided by my sweet heart.

the bottom layer for the dip is a mix of pinto refried beans and black refried beans. Oh yes two kinds my friends mwhahahahahahah!
Then a layer of chopped mushrooms, and olives.
There is a quarter of it with no mushrooms or olives because my friend Elwin can't stand them and is picky and I tried to please him even if it totally goes against the grain to leave them out.
Then it is guacamole layer time.
I took some perfectly ripe avacodo's and mashed them up in a bowl.

OOh i could eat them just like that. I love avocado!!!

Then I mixed in some salt, pepper, fresh squeezed lime, and sour cream.

Super creamy yummy!

The salsa was my moms recipe minus the jalapeno peppers.
Yes I made an abomination. Salsa with no peppers. I don't like peppers and I really don't like spicy. So whats in it you ask?
4 fresh vine ripened organic tomatos (to die for)
handful of cilantro
Four cloves of garlic chopped finely
half an onion
salt and pepper
some paprika (i added this)
quarter of a lime with the peel removed

I then put all these ingredients into this cool salsa grinder thingy that my mom gave me.
Turn the crank vigorously and it chops all the ingredients together.

The bean dip was topped off with two kinds of mexican cheeses.
Cotija which I liked the most. It had a stronger flavor and reminded me of mozzarella
and Ranchero which was more flaky and reminded me of parmesan.
Put the thing in the oven to get it warm and gooey. Scoop on plate, add home made chips and Walla you've got mexican dipping feast.

~Isn't it perdiful~

We brought everything over on Friday for our anime night. Much feasting joking was had by all.
Ole!

Little Wonders- Blogging for Babes Challenge

So this month is the March for Babies which is all about the littlest among us, the event is for little creations. Holly at Phe.mom.enon is not only holding this fantastic blog event to spread the word but is also going to be in the march. Check out and donate if you can, learn more here, and most of all spread the word! Also visit our roundup where you can see everyones Awesome creations and vote on your favorite Here (please vote for me)!!

So here is the only requirement. Make something (or many somethings) in miniature or small sizes, and man did I have fun with that.
As any bento loving woman or girl out there we have a fondness for cutesy things and small things so this event was a no brainer.

I present cute miniature single serving strawberry layered star and heart cakes!!!
These babies are adorable enough to win the grinch over, tasty enough to grab the most stalwart stick in the mud, and easy enough that your kid sister could probably do them.

For these cakes I used Dories perfect party cake recipe from the last daring bakers challenge. This time though I used almond extract instead of the lemon, and chopped up a half cup of white chocolate chips really finely which I added to the batter.
Found box full of cute individual sized star shaped foil pans (actually on the box says they are for jello jigglers) that worked perfect for the star cakes. The best part was they were easy to pull off and are only a freaking BUCK!!! I mean seriously super cheap.
The hearts were from a heart pan that I bought around valentines day.
For the heart ones I layered the bottom of the pans with some raw oats, and then poured in the batter. Then topped them with a sprinkling of oats. We've been eating those with no frosting as a breakfast treat for the last few days. They are just the right amount of sweetness.


The stars I sliced each in half putting whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries as a filling. Re-assembled them and frosted with more whipped topping! YUM ! topped with some strawberries. These babies I brought to our weekly anime night where friends happily engorged on them.

Heart and stars XOXOXOXO hug, kisses, and lots of love!

March Daring Bakers Challenge- Dories Perfect Cake

This months awesome challenge was hosted by Morven at Food Art and Random Thoughts.
She gave us the awesome recipe for cake. I was very excited because both me and my sweet heart love vanilla, and her cake was the base for what looked like a phenomenal white fluffy layered cake.

Here I have my dry ingredients, eggs, and buttermilk. I loved whisking this and did it all by hand. I'm a bit of an old fashioned girl.
It became this nice thick consistency almost more like pancake batter then normal cake batter.
It tasted good (yes i did taste the batter & no i'm not going to die from it)

I put them in their respective pans to bake.
This is where Sudden Doom occured.
I wanted to do something different and try out my rose pan that I've never used before.
I'd never made a layered cake before but thought it looked like well..... a piece of cake.
I also tried to adjust for our elevation but it didn't work.

The round cake turned out fluffy golden and perfect.

I turned it over on the rack to completely cool. Getting ready to see what my beautiful rose tin and created for me.

Behold the burnt umber rose, also known as Peice of CRAP!
The inside was a beautiful white fluffy cake, and the outside a brown hard burned flower.
poor little ugly duckling.

Things got worse, and I mean waaaaaaaaaaaay worse.
I tried making a whipped cream frosting with a bit of the filling flavoring added.
I was packing up to go out of town the very next day and I knew I wouldn't have time to make the buttercream.
I stirred it too long or maybe it was too warm or maybe it was possessed who knows?
but It turned out seperated and weird colored and wouldn't spread.
I ended up in my messy kitchen in tears worried that the beautiful vanilla cake was done for.

At least I got a chance to use my very cute new cake plate. It's a heart from Kitten my special friend.
Luckily my beloved he tried to make it look ok while i was in being quite morose.
He sliced it and even ate a huge peice.
I tried a bit thinking it would taste as bad as it looks.
Well my friends Dorie knew what she was doing even if I surely didn't because it was possibly the tastiest, fluffiest, moistest white cake I'd ever eaten.

So here is to my ugly duckling which tasted better then a swan.
(lol doesn't that sound a bit creepy)

Here is the recipe for those who wants it
Note: I made mine with no lemon. Everything was vanilla, and the filling was champagne peach and berry jam. With some raspberry jam on top of that too.

Dorie's Perfect Cake Recipe

PERFECT PARTY CAKE
Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).
Posting date Sunday 30 March.

IMPORTANT NOTICE - RECIPE EDITED MARCH 10TH
(sorry I'm still a bit of a blogger "dummy" so don't know how to highlight in red). For those of you who don't read all the comments or don't have Dorie's book, there were a couple of omissions which some diligent Daring Bakers picked up. If these contributed to a "floppity flops" - my sincere apologies. Please note the changes in bold below - one is the reference to a 1/4 cup of lemon juice and the second is in relation to whisking together the egg whites and milk in the 2nd line of making the cake. I've also expanded on the Update on Playing Around.

Introduction from Morven
I wanted to pick something that had potential for putting your personal stamp on. Although this is essentially a white cake I know there are some lemon haters among us so feel free to use your imagination. If you inner chef tells you that you need to make a chocolate layer cake then by all means do so. See Dorie’s words on playing around below for some flavour combination ideas.

Update on playing around. Yes you can do what ever you want with this cake as long as you promise to use the basic cake recipe and the basic butter cream recipe (if you are doing the butter cream that is) . The filling/frosting flavors are completely up to you. If you don't feel like using Dorie's butter cream recipe (flavored as you wish) she says whipped cream will do for the filling and finishing and I say... go for it. If you want to use fondant or something else - it's your cake. Bake a square one, a heart shaped one or any other shape you like but please make it a layer cake.

I can't wait to see what combinations people come up with. You can leave out the lemon, put different flavors of preserves in the middle, leave off the coconut - have some fun with it.

Words from Dorie
Stick a bright-colored Post-it to this page, so you’ll always know where to turn for a just-right cake for any celebration. The original recipe was given to me by my great dear friend Nick Malgieri, of baking fame, and since getting it, I’ve found endless opportunities to make it – you will too. The cake is snow white, with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen – no fussing when it comes to slicing the layers in half or cutting tall, beautiful wedges for serving; and, it tastes just as you’d want a party cake to taste – special. The base recipe is for a cake flavoured with lemon, layered with a little raspberry jam and filled and frosted with a classic (and so simple) pure white lemony hot-meringue buttercream but, because the elements are so fundamental, they lend themselves to variation (see Playing Around), making the cake not just perfect, but also versatile.

For the Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Butter cream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Butter cream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the butter cream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the butter cream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white butter cream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the butter cream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the butter cream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and butter cream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have butter cream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining butter cream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavor, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of butter cream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the butter cream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with butter cream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer butter cream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.

BBM Woot

Alright so there was this awesome event to participate in, and participate i did!!!
You can view our lovely hostess Stephanie's blog Here
Well me and my good friend kitten decided to join in the fun ooh but then she had a very clever idea. Lets up the play a bit and make identical twin boxes. One we would mail to our assigned bbm person and the other to each other.
I recieved Kittens box first. She must have been pretty excited to send it so quickly.
Look at this loot, its like freaking Christmas. You should have heard me squeal when I opened it.

Look at this beautiful site that awaited me. Doesn't this seem like soooo much fun!!!
That's because it was!

Clever girl that she is she put her treats in this super cute and perfectly sized, easy to clean pretty in pink mixing bowl. Included is green spatula (my favorite color) some little tart tins, vanilla bean sugar, some province french herbs (i cook everything with herbs woot) Green cake decorating spray (me and her have the same favorite color go figure.) some green M & M's, a firey chocolate bar (very exotic with chili flavor added)

Oh my friends but that is not all. Included cute little designed recipes that she made for me.
These are some of her favorite recipes to make and now they are mine mwhahahaha.
Be prepared.

She put these super fancy teas which smelled so good. I've tasted the ginger peach one already and it was so nice and comforting. There was also a blackberry one. Then this flavoring stuff in four different flavors to go in hot cocoa.

This is the weird chocolate bar. I wanted you to see I wasn't kidding when it said fire on it.
Weird isn't it. My boyfriend really loved the flavor of this since he adores dark chocolate.
I'm more of a milk chocolate person myself though.

This was my favorite of the dish towels she sent me. I think the gator with the heart in its mouth is just so darling.

Once again you can tell our favorite colors are green. Isn't this adorable. and one next to it is swirly hearts.

Okay I got some bonus prizes in here that her person didn't get. SSSSSHHHH don't tell.
One is this amazing porcelain plate to display my treats on. Also a ring pop since I'm her princess, and needed decent ring rofl. Already ate that since it was cute and tasty.
Thank you so much Kitten you totally made this month. Please check her out at her awesome blog Wyckedsweetdesigns.

That isn't the end my lovely viewers.. oh no we have more.
Then just when I thought things couldn't possibly be more awesome possum I recieved this awesome package from Britain. Looking at the box I grew excited trying to think of how things might be different in Britain when I recieved a humorous surprise.

The Masterful, Majestic, Magnificent, Michelle from GreedyGourmet decided to pull one over my head and actually made a delightful box of treats from the place she grew up South Africa.
How freaking cool is that!!!

She made sure it was extra secure with this foam, and warned me if something was missing that customs stole it. Luckily for me everything was there.

Her letter was fun, informative and funny. I laughed quite a few times and think she's probably a sister soul.

She put all these interesting treats in the box. All from South Africa. I've never seen any of these in the states before so found it to be quite an educational and tasty experience.
My favorite was the "p.s. your looney bar"

There was also a cute zebra bookmark (great since I'm a super bookworm) a cute hand carved wooden lucky keychain. And the most magnificent hand dyed and painted african cloth. Also just happens to be in my two favorite colors of Green and Black. How cool is that.
So this event was a blast and I totally made out like a bandit or a pirate... you know what i mean.
Thank you ladies for a fantastic wonderful plethora of gifts.

Daring Bakers February Challenge

Daring Bakers:
Bakers who dare to do recipes that are outside of our comfort zones.

Bakers that live on the wild side whether it is melting mixing bowls by accident, or setting off smoke alarms.

Bakers that share each others successes and defeats, holding each other up giving advice and encouragement.

Most of all Daring Bakers HAVE FUN!!!

Well I certainly strive to be a daring Baker!

Well this month I was going to cop out, but the Daring baker in me just wouldn't have it.
It was so hard to find time, for this marathon recipe and I wanted to do it justice.
So here with out much ado, is my attempts at our February challenge provided by the beautiful and talented Mary and Sara
They chose an epic piece by Julia Child's. Her amazing French Bread. Here is the Recipe.

I started with kneading the dough by hand. I don't have a kitchen aid so it was the good old fashioned way like my Grandmother and Mother both do.
This cute little dough ball I named "Doughy" and I spent much of the kneading time singing and humming to doughy and begging him to grow up into a nice set of bread.

Doughy was kind of tired after so much kneading so I laid him to rest in a nicely greased bowl for a nap. He even has a little blanket to keep him warm.
What a spoiled dough!

Doughy slept for a very long time, but it was time to get him up again.
He was kind of gaseous and needed to be burped.
So I flattened out all the gases in him and kneaded him a bit more for good measure.

Then I placed him back in his bowl to finish his nap.

Doughty liked his nap soooo much he grew three sizes bigger.
What a big boy!!

Don't you think he's cute? I thought so.
but then something went horribly wrong ....dun ... dun ... dun

Then came the time to cut and shape him. He tried really hard, I really can't think that it's his fault. So it must have been me. I think I either didn't shape them right, or perhaps I didn't cut the pieces evenly. Either way poor Doughy was kind of small and skinny and looked a bit weird.
I think he was probably the geeky kid in dough school.

Well after all that time spent I wasn't going to just give up, although a fit of hysterics did feel pretty close to the surface. I sprayed them with some cold water and put them in the oven.
I even added the tray of water in the bottom of the oven hoping to help.
They looked a bit burned to me when they came out of the oven.

Yet they had a nice golden color to them.
I once again brushed cold water on the crusts and left them on my cooling racks for the two hours.
This was hard because I wanted to see if the insides were all hard or not.

Two hours later we checked them ... and.......

Much to my delight even though not the best shapes the crust was the perfect crusty texture somewhat hard, and the inside was nice and soft and fluffy.
The taste of it was phenomenal.

Good Job Little Doughy You've grown into some beautiful breads in spite of my mistakes!

We celebrated this wonderful turn out by slicing up one of the thinner ones into little crackers and having them with some polish sausage and sharp cheddar cheese.

This was a truly delightful and European meal to finish off the baking marathon.
I think next time though I will cut it into two portions instead of three, and make two nicely sized baguettes instead.

Kitchen of Love

So down at our good friend Mele Cotte we got a fantastic event. Kitchen of Love is an event where we were to all make a dinner or appetizer for our loved one that has at least one (but i chose all) ingredients to be an aphrodisiac. The only other rule was that it couldn't be a dessert.
If you want to see all the great roundup entries on Feb 12 go Here.


For my Aphrodisiac Dinner
we have tender steamed salmon, succulent asparagus, and delectable carrots.
all topped with a minced garlic and basil butter sauce.
All with a side of baked garlic toast
and goblets of the most amazing knudsen blueberry sparkling cider.

Fish
Aphrodite, the goddess of love was born from sea foam, so in general any type of seafood is considered to be an aphrodisiac. The high phosphorus and iodine content of seafood may actually have a beneficial effect on sexual potency.

Asparagus
Perhaps the most erotic member of the vegetable kingdom. In nineteenth century France bridegrooms were required to eat several courses consisting of asparagus, asparagus and more asparagus because of its reputed powers to arouse.
Carrots
This popular root vegetable, with its phallic shape and sweet flavor, was used to seduce lovers by Middle Eastern royalty. Our question is: "Why does royalty needed to depend on carrots?"

Garlic
This pungent member of the lily family has been used to treat a wide variety of illnesses from the common cold to heart disease. Garlic has been used as an aphrodisiac by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and Japanese. Garlic mixed with lard used externally to bring on an erection has been suggested by a professor at USC medical school. (Do not try this around a hungry German Sheppard.) Garlic stimulates the appetite, awakens the senses and makes food taste great.
Basil
This flavorful herb is used in Voodoo love ceremonies in Haiti. (teehee i had to try it when i saw vodoo ceremonies)
If you want to see other interesting aphrodisiacs check out "the cooking couple"

So you are probably wondering how did my beau take it.
Huge success!!! The salmon was tender and the light buttery sauce complimented the flavor without covering it up. It was some of the best salmon I've ever had. The carrots & asparagus were steamed just to perfection where they were tender but still had tons of flavor. I drizzled some of the garlic basil sauce on them and the fish. The toast was a nice solid side to compliment the amazingly fresh and tasty ingredients of the rest of the meal.
Then we topped it off with this amazing sparkling cider. If you can get your hands on any knudsen ciders definitely try them. They are made from 100% juice and have a much better flavor then any sparkling cider or soda pop I've ever had. We've so far tried their Mango, and black cherry. This blueberry one is even better then those. Next time we are going to try the pear sparkling cider.

Such a wonderfully romantic meal for two.
Whether these aphrodisiac's are true or myth they certainly did
increase our romance for the evening.