Finally, a Cake!

I will own you!
Thats what I was saying while I fought with my fondant on Saturday. I decided not to buy it pre-made, as I heard that it stinks of chemicals when you open it. Anyway, the cake I made for my parents' 30th anniversary (hooray for them!!) got lots of praises (hooray for me)! One of our guests even gave me props for making it without having air conditioning!

Anyway, here's the link for the fondant recipe I used: http://www.recipezaar.com/255227 .

I didn't use shortening, I used butter. And I certainly didn't need half a cup of grease, I only used half a tablespoon! Also, I tried this recipe in half-batches, so I wouldn't stroke of frustration. I heard of fondant recipies not working out, so I wasn't about to make a whole batch for nothing. Finally, I used my dough hook to start out, and then I kneaded. So much less messy. For my last batch, I tried kneading from start to finish..ugh, what a freaking mess! It still worked though. I ended up with 4 balls of fondant in a ziplock in the fridge. I made them over about 3 days.

Here's a link for the cake recipe I used:
http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8918 .

Although what I had in my head was fancier version what I actually made - with fondant bows and numbers! - I am still so happy with these results, it was delish, and that my parents loved it!

Pesto for 2

Last night was my first attempt at making pesto. This was after I snubbed the store-bought kind this past weekend because I was oh-so-sure I could make it myself. I'm proud to say it was successful! I used almonds instead of pine nuts since that they were the only nut I have on hand. And I cut a recipe I had in half, since I was running out of parmesan cheese..there was just the two of us eating anyways. This recipe yielded enough for the both of us, and then some to spare.

Ingredients

• 25 almonds toasted in toaster-oven for 5-7 minutes (keep an eye on them, as they can burn in a blink of an eye!!). Let them cool for about 5 min.
• 1 cup fresh basil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

In a mini-chopper, or food processor, blend basil and garlic first. This is just to make sure that the garlic is well incorporated in the end. Add almonds, blend. Slowly, gradually add oil while blending (and this is why a food processor, which we don't have would work better than a chopper, so that you don't have to concentrate on both pressing the button and drizzling the oil through the chopper hole. Plus the mini-chopper holes are so small, oil was pouring off the sides and kind of annoying me!). Once oil is incorporated, you should find yourself with a nice, oily paste. Transfer to a small bowl, and mix in cheese. Tada, Pesto!

To add to pasta, save some of pasta water aside before draining (up to a cup). Add the pesto to the pasta, it will be too sticky to work with at first. Add a drizzle of pasta water to it. Do this gradually, until pesto is covering pasta. You don't have to use all the pasta water you saved. Just enough to help you cover the pasta! We added shrimp too. Hubby was impressed too! Only suggestion he made was to add a bit of lemon zest for tang. He may have a point..

Anyway, stay tuned for my attempt at making a "wedding cake" its for my parents' 30th anniversary. Its going to be a daunting task, since I will be making fondant for the first time. Yikes!! From what I've read on the internet so far, it doesn't sound like the easiest thing to do, and it may not come out. I may go to Chapters and take a look at Martha Stewart's wedding cake book, maybe she has some good suggestions?

Last Night's Supper, This Morning's Breakfast

Last night, hubby and I rented a couple of movies, "Cloverfield" and "Dan in Real Life" (I won't get into detailed critiques of them..let's just say I don't recommend either) and were anxious to make a quick, filling, and delish dinner. I (we?) came up with something I'll call BLD Toss:
"Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner Toss," and it turned out to meet all of our expectations: it was quick, filling, delish, and..the leftovers were used for the next morning's breakfast.

(Prep time: 30 minutes. Cook time: 31 minutes)

Ingredients

• 4 sausages (any kind, we used 2 German, 2 hot Italian)
• 1 onion (we used a red onion from the market)
• 2 green onion
• 5 small-medium potatoes
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp black pepper
• 3 tbsp canola or olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Removie casings from sausages and slice them to about 1/2 inch thick. Thinly slice onions - 1/4 inch thick. Thinly slice potatoes - 1/8th inch thick. Spread sausage, onions and potatoes on to shallow baking dish. Drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix a bit to disperse oil, salt, pepper evenly. Drizzle honey on top, and pop into oven for 30 minutes, and broil for 1 minute to get top browned a bit.

Let cool for about 2 minutes, and dig in!

Recipe feeds 4 people, or if its just 2 of you snuggling up tonight, then save half of recipe for breakfast tomorrow!!

This morning's breakfast:

Ingredients

• 1/2 recipe of last night's dinner
• 1 tbsp oil (olive or canola)
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Put oil in to pan, put stove on medium heat. Take leftovers out from fridge, throw it in pan. Stir it around for about 2 minutes, so everything gets warmed up. Meanwhile, beat 4 eggs with milk, then pour into pan with rest of melange. Cook until eggs are of desired consistency.

Enjoy with juice or fresh coffee!

What are Mountains and Molehills in My World?

Hello out there! So, here I go joining the blogging bandwagon.

I am thinking this is going to be mostly a food blog. I want to display the cakes (mountains) and cookies (molehills) that I make! I love baking a tad bit more than cooking as it is much more therapeutic for me. Baking cakes and cookies just happens to be an outlet for me to sort out my thoughts and problems-and relax!- as I create something yummy. Who knows, perhaps I will also share with you what was on my mind at the time I was baking..my personal mountains and molehills..

While you wait for my first sweet blog, check out the brownies I made back in May 2008. At the time, I was trying to find a good recipe for our ripening bananas, when lo and behold.. I found this challenge! It was so exciting to see a picture of mine on the Food Channel's web site!! My version and picture of the recipe is the last one on the page, with the bananas!! Here's the site:

http://www.foodtv.ca/BLOG/archive/2008/06/02/may-cooking-club-challenge-results-part-iii-chocolate-banana-brownies.aspx

If you like chocolate and bananas, try them out!
PS: I am actually not a huge huge fan of bananas myself..