Sunday, July 11, 2010

Charlie and the Chocolate Cake

This is the second summer that I've hosted a book club for my daughter and some of her classmates. For each book, we discuss it, do a craft and have a snack that goes along with the book. For example, last summer we read The Mouse and the Motorcycle and had apples and cheese for snack. Then we read Felicity about the Colonial American Girl Doll and we made butter and ate it on scones. The first book for this summer was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so of course I knew I had to make Jamie's Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake (pg. 339).
Once the baby was down for his nap, the kid chef and I got to work. We only had a couple of hours until book club started. I love to bake and I'm pretty good at it but I wouldn't say cakes are my specialty. This recipe seemed so easy though, I was hoping for a "best seller."
We pulled out the food processor, put in all of the ingredients, whizzed it around, threw it into a baking pan. It really is that easy, the kid could have made it herself! (By the way, she wants me to tell you that she's quite good at cracking eggs!)
The recipe calls for 1/4 pound of soft fudge that you stick into the batter and this sort of threw me. Like real fudge, Jamie? How odd. Besides a candy store, where would one by such a thing? I quickly looked at my Canadian counterparts blog to see if she had made this recipe yet for some advice. She had! Thank goodness (the kid says) and we read that she had left out the fudge and reported that the cake was rich enough without it. So, we leave out the fudge too. Now Jamie says that the cake is "squidgy" and a bit moist inside but kid and I maybe cook it a little too long. If this happens to you, serve with extra ice cream and you'll be all set. For the record, the book club meeting was a hit and I'd like to think it had a little to do with the chocolate cake!

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/mega-chocolate-fudge-cake

Recipes cooked: 43
Recipes left: 130
Days left: 239

The Sous Chef

After a few long weeks at work, I retreated to my parents house for a nice relaxing mini-vacation with the kids. We had steamed crabs and corn from the veggie stand, went to the local dairy for ice cream and spent time at the beach enjoying the salt air and sound of the surf. For the last night, I thought I'd cook dinner for everyone. I picked out "Baked Cod wrapped in Bacon with Rosemary" (pg. 256) and Mexican-Style Corn (pg. 227.) After a late afternoon trip to the beach, Grandma played with the kids outside and I started dinner. My dad loves to cook. As I've mentioned, I didn't help much in the kitchen growing up and now that I have my own family I make frequent calls home with cooking emergencies. Dad is often on the other end of the call helping me make a pot roast or some other recipe that I'm craving. He very excitedly asked if he could be my sous chef for the night and we got going on the chopping and cutting. They didn't have cod at the store so we used halibut which worked great as a replacement. First, we chopped up our rosemary on the cutting board, added olive oil, salt and pepper and rolled the fish around in it coating it in the mixture. In the meantime, we preheated the oven and searched for the perfect pan. I always change my mind at least three times on what pan/pot/baking dish I'm going to use (dirtying way more than necessary) and this night was no different. My dad seemed to have the same trouble so maybe that's where I get it from. We finally settled on a broiler pan and after wrapping the coated halibut in bacon and putting one last stem of rosemary on top, we stuck it in the oven. The fish just needed 10 minutes and the corn was ready by the time the fish was done. It looked great, just like the picture. We carefully placed it on everyone's plate and rolled the corn around in butter and some grated parmesan cheese for our Mexican corn and put that on their plates too. I think my dad got a huge kick out of being MY helper for once. It was lots of fun!
Recipes cooked: 42
Recipes left: 131
Days left: 240

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Make it pretty and they'll eat it!

Fruit Platter (pg.320)
Oh my gosh! So easy and I got to check something off my recipe list. Hey, its in the book so it counts!
1. Take any fruit, I just took any and everything I had in the house.
2. Cut it up.
3. Arrange it nicely on a special plate, one you don't use every day.
4. Add to that a pretty bowl with some vanilla yogurt.
5. Present to your children.
6. They will be so impressed with the presentation, they'll eat every last bit!
Recipes cooked: 40
Recipes left: 133
Days left: 248

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Chocolate for Breakfast

Also while the kids were away, I made two more oatmeal recipes. The one I was most excited about was the "Dark Chocolate and Seville Orange Marmalade." (pg.300)Yum! Who wouldn't like chocolate for breakfast, right? I started with the same quick cooking oats I had been using for the others and was quite proud of myself when I succeeded in whipping it up with no boil overs, no charred bottom! Success! In the last minute of cooking I added a 1/2 ounce of chocolate and a few tablespoons of orange marmalade. It smelled great, looked great but I was not a fan when I tasted it. Now, I've never liked chocolate and orange together so I think maybe next time I'd try it with another kind of preserves.
The next morning, I made just the basic oatmeal (pg. 300) and put some yummy blueberries and strawberries on top. Again, success in cooking it with no boil overs and no sticky bottoms.
Tasty!
Recipes cooked: 39
Recipes left: 134
Days left: 250

Vindaloo

While the kids were at Grandma's for their annual Grandma Vacation a couple of weeks ago, we took the opportunity to whip up another yummy curry dish. Jamie says Vindaloo is a childhood favorite of his and that its the dish that made him a chile lover. I kind of wimped out in the chile department but I would definitely make this again and maybe be a bit braver next time. I was a tad skeptical about adding the large pieces of tomato but they cooked down great and were really, really yummy. It was so nice to make it together with hubby in a nice quiet kitchen with no time table or hungry bellies fussing in the background. We took our time cooking and finally wandered outside with our vindaloo close to nine o'clock that night. The two of us ate outside, in the dark, and washed it down with a cold beer. Outstanding!
Recipes cooked: 37
Recipes left: 136
Days left: 252

Delicious Chopped Salsa-ness

A few weeks ago, husband had some co-workers and their families over before we all went to the company picnic. Since we were going to eat, I wanted to offer everyone a light appetizer. Normally, I would head to Trader Joe's and grab some stuff to pass off as my own but this time, I decided to tackle the task myself. I made Jamie's tomato salsa (pg. 273). Now there was a lot of chopping involved and it took two of us to do it in a reasonable amount of time but 6 tomatoes, 1 clove of garlic, 2 scallions, a tad of red chili, a small handful of cilantro, later and it was a bright colorful bowl of delicious chopped salsa-ness. Squeeze in a lime, about the same amount of olive oil, salt and pepper and give it a good stir. It was a huge hit and even kicked off a conversation about Amy's Food Revolution. Enjoy!
Recipes cooked: 36
Recipes left: 137
Days left: 259

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Did you miss me?

Even though I haven't been writing, I've been cooking! Stay tuned for my write ups of more oatmeal recipes, salsa and a new curry dish!
Happy cooking,
Amy