Time for Cake

I have two nephews in Boston, Alex, the 4-year old, and Pete, the 1 1/2 year old. As the cool aunt in their lives (i.e., the person who will encourage them to play videogames and likely buy them beer before they're 21), we bake together. Last spring, it was just Alex and I. Now, Pete has joined in for the fun.

We baked a chocolate peanut butter cake, an absolutely delicious triple-layer chocolate cake with peanut butter and cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache topping. I found the recipe on Smitten Kitchen, a cooking blog that I absolutely adore (and have mentioned before). The recipes are great, the writing is humorous and truthful, and Deb regularly admits to her kitchen strengths, hilarity and foibles. And did I mention that her recipes are good? Good as in I haven't had a failure yet. All deliciousness.

Back to the cake. The recipe originally came from Sky High, a recently published cake cookbook that has already been added to my wish list. It's likely that if it doesn't enter my home through gift channels, I will break down and purchase on my own.

Ok, really, back to the cake. First, a sour cream chocolate cake. Alex liked it because he could pour all of the ingredients into the bowl. It was even easier because the cake required only one bowl - something that I always appreciate. Second, the frosting. Alex and Pete both helped here. Alex added the cream cheese and butter in to the mixing bowl, and then as we beat it, helped me count and add the five cups of confectioner's sugar. Pete helped with a constant stream of burbling 1 1/2 year old comments, and a few tastes along the way. Pete and Alex were also my cake frosting audience, a first for me in my history of cake baking. Third, the chocolate ganache, which I finished while Pete and Alex had a bath. And finally, the candles, because really, what is a birthday cake without candles?

Based on the picture above, it's obvious that Pete enjoyed the fruit of his labors. Below, the finished cake.

Oh - My

Oh my gosh. After apologizing twice for the state of my blog...I accidentally discovered that one of my attempts to fix it actually stuck. Yeah for me.

Keep checking back...and don't be surprised to see more improvement mistakes. Someday, I'll get this right.

A Sunday Dinner & the Blog

Richard and Melissa came over for dinner, mainly so that Richard could work on my blog (sorry, Richard, my lack of HTML skills did some damage) and Melissa and I could catch up. The food, was, well delicious, almost as good as the company.

I've been cooking from Smitten Kitchen lately, and made most of the meal from this site. Lamb and zucchini kebabs with keftas, rosemary crackers and marinated eggplant with capers and mint, plus a Greek-salad of my own making, fried squash blossoms and Richard and Melissa brought along some delicious cheese (of the truffle and blue cheese variety) and duck mousse pate. And a berry pie for dessert. I should note that most of the ingredients came from the Cap Hill farmer's market, which week after week, supplies me with delicious food.

This entry wouldn't be complete without mentioning the wine. We began with a 2005 Darious Merlot from Napa Valley, which Richard and Melissa found in Napa when she ran the marathon. I'm now wondering if she stopped halfway through the run for tasting. I'm not a merlot fan, but this was good enough to convince me that I wasn't drinking an ordinary merlot. Rather, it was something that the gods delivered from the heavens to the vineyards in Napa. We followed that up with a 2002 Bangers & Mash Syrah from Mendocino County, which delivered quite nicely. Besides being delicious, the bottle had a pig on the label, which for some reason, fascinated Richard. Something about a scavenger hunt, while Melissa and I stared at him.

Once again, apologies about the blog. Yes, I know it's a mess. Silly me, I assumed that upgrading the blog to the latest version of Moveable Type would somehow mean that doing cool stuff - such as changing the background color, inserting pictures, adding a list of blogs that I read (called an Index) - would become easier. I was wrong. It's just as difficult and complex. If I spoke HTML, it would be easier, but I don't. And poor Richard, who has patiently helped me all along, received an email (fueled by an excellent glass of 2007 Reinares Tempranillo, from Spain) telling him exactly what I thought of Moveable Type. He is patient and kind, and hopefully, soon, we'll soon have the site looking better. And by "we'll", I really mean Richard.

Wine Tasting while Shopping

QFC is now piloting wine tasting in their stores. I popped in for lemons (Averna + lemon juice + ginger ale = the Vertigo, and my new favorite drink) and paper towels, and left having sampled four solid wines. They sectioned off an area of the wine section, had samples of wines, Full Sail, cheeses and plenty of food. All for a $2 donation to Susan G. Komen. Yeah!

Sorry about the current state of the blog. I have a few entries queued up about and ready to go, which explains the lack of writing lately. The appearance, well, an update to the newest version of Movable Type and my pathetic attempts to give the site a facelift ended in the disaster you see before you. Richard, because he is kind and fabulous, has offered to help me fix it, and I just need to get my act together.

It may be a while, kids, I'm on the road again.