The Christmas Cake That Wasn't

I know I have been a little absent for the month of December (1 post?? Really??) but I did want to share our (almost) Christmas dessert disaster.

After much deliberation, I decided to make this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. After all, I have had amazing results with all the recipes I have use in the past (lemon ricotta pancakes anyone?). So this time I set out to make a glorious, amazing, tasty chocolate peanut butter cake. The only thing is…I didn’t follow Deb’s instructions. Well at least not totally. See, I thought it might have been overkill to grease the pan, then put in parchment paper, and then grease the parchment paper. I was wrong.

So I ended up with something that looked like this:
(Please excuse the photo quality, after two separate trips to the grocery store for overlooked ingredients, at 9pm on December 23rd I wasn’t really in the mood).

But since I was the only one bringing dessert for Christmas Eve dinner, and I didn’t think that going out AGAIN was an option, I decided to make do with what I had…even if it was a pile of chocolate cake.

So I pressed the cake into the bottom of a glass dish, topped with the peanut butter frosting, and chocolate peanut butter glaze.

They actually turned out really good. They are INCREDIBLE rich, so we had to learn that they needed to be eaten as bars, and not take a huge cake slice, but once we learned that they disappeared quickly! (but not before I took one last picture!!)

VEGAS BABY!!

I'm so excited as my husband and I are scheduled to leave for VEGAS (it's more fun in all caps) tomorrow morning.

On the downside, we are supposed to get the biggest blizzard in the last 3 years...apparently somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 - 16 inches in the time span of around 24 hours. Hopefully that isn't the case and my flight takes off as scheduled. **fingers crossed** So I'm off to finish getting ready for bed. Our flight leaves pretty early tomorrow!

Mmm...breakfast...

This fall I tried a few recipes from one of my favorite blogs: Smitten Kitchen. I love her writing style, photography, and so far, every recipes we've tried. The Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Sauteed Apples were no exception. Head over to her site for the recipe, and while you're there, search through the archives. I'm sure you'll find many recipes to try out. In fact, there are so many to try out, you may be overwhelmed and unsure of where to start. I'd recommend starting with these :)

As for these, they will definitely be making a reappearance at our breakfast table. My husband keeps mentioning how we should make them again. Mmm...yum...

Daring Cooks Challenge 3: Soufail

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

I guess the point of The Daring Cooks is to challenge yourself. Otherwise why bother? Right? Unfortunately my soufflés didn't have the height that I was anticipating, and the tops burned before the insides managed to cook all the way. So, they ended up going in the trash :(
I chose to use this recipe for the challenge as it was recommended by another Daring Cook. I don't believe it was the recipe that was to blame for the not so edible results. I hadn't been feeling well, and cut a few corners to avoid creating dirty dishes, and I don't think it worked :(

Just a word of warning soufflés...this isn't that last you'll see of me...

Signs of Fall

Despite the unseasonably warm weather Minnesotans have been enjoying lately, it is in fact fall, and for us, nothing signals fall quite like whipping up a big batch of chili.

I use my mom's recipe (not sure exactly where it came from before her) and generally make some modifications to the amount of spice depending on how much I like the company how spicy my company can take it. This time I added a little bit of Penzey's Black and Red spice, and it was really tasty!

When I am too lazy to make cornbread (add to that the fact I haven't found a cornbread recipe I love yet) I fall back on the cornbread VitaTop.

Mom's Famous (Now) Chili

1 Onion, chopped
2lbs. lean ground beef
2 cans dark red kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 large can petite diced tomatoes
1 small can diced chili pepper
Red pepper flakes and Cayenne pepper (to taste)

Cook the beef with the onion. Then combine everything in your slow cooker. Turn it on and leave. Come home to a wonderful smelling kitchen and a tasty dinner :)

What could be easier than that???

The only thing that could make being sick bearable...

is coming home to this in your mailbox. Real Simple always manages to bring a smile to my face.

Nightstand Dilemma Solved

You may remember from this post that my bedroom was missing matching nightstands, and you might be interested to know that I have driven EVERYONE nuts trying to find the right set. Quizzing my more design savvy friends (do they have to match? what would "just go" vs. match? do they have to be the same color wood? do they have to be wood?) and multiple shopping trips to pick out exactly the right nightstands for the price and the feel of the room.

Mainly my qualifications were that I wanted them to be under $100 (ideally quite a bit less, but apparently quality furniture is more expensive than I had realized) and have a drawer (specific and random I know).

Last weekend, after much thought, we purchased these. My husband put them together while I handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. He was impressed with the quality (not top of the line, but not our usual particle board furniture) and I LOVE how they look in our bedroom!! I think they really add a cohesion that was missing before. AND I can now go purchase the Anthropologie handles that I want (which may have been the whole reason behind demanding that they had a drawer) :)

Photos to come...eventually...