HAPPY EASTER!

As most of you know (haha, all two of you), Scott and I spent the past year living in a really SMALL apartment out in the boonies. It had a lot of pluses (cheap, quiet) but it was time for a change. We just moved last Thursday to a larger apartment that will be better for many reasons, so we're really happy! We're all unpacked and it already feels like home. So much like home in fact that we hosted a small Easter gathering today! It was super great! Here's what was on the menu. . .

A delicious Sangria that I've made a few times before. I love the fresh lemon and orange juice. Also, I use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier. It's less expensive, you can't tell the difference, and I can use the left-overs for future margaritas. Thanks, Emeril!

My mother-in-law brought her famous Easter Bread. It's not Easter without it! Unfortunately I don't have the recipe, but I do have a picture:


Isn't it pretty? And around the edge of the plate are her yummy Egg Biscuit cookies.

I made a new recipe today too: Baked Asparagus with Balsamic Butter Sauce:


I took a recommendation from some of the reviewers to brown the butter a bit. I also used olive oil instead of cooking spray. It was really good! Definitely a recipe I'll use for another holiday. For everyday though, I prefer my asparagus a little more plain.

I made a chickpea salad too that I wrote about in the post below this that was tasty. Also on the menu was my mom's rice pilaf. You want that recipe? You got it!

Mom's Pilaf:

3 Tbs. butter
1/3 c. orzo
1 c. long grain rice (I use Jasmine, my mom uses Uncle Ben's)
2 1/2 c. vegetable broth (or chicken) -- I use Better Than Bullion in water

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Add the orzo and cook until golden brown, making sure not to burn it. Add the rice and stir to combine. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir, remove from heat, and enjoy!

Diane made delicious Spinach Beregs, an Armenian appetizer similar to Spanikopita. Buttery, cheesy, yum.

I had a bit of a snafu with my Vidalia Onion Quiche. It's hit or miss really, and Diane has experienced the same thing. Sometimes it comes out soupy (like today!) and sometimes it's fine. Up until today, I thought that using half and half instead of 2% milk was the right choice for a more firm consistency but maybe not, unless I just didn't cook it long enough which is definitely possible. So I won't give you that recipe, though it's DELICIOUS. . . it's just kind of a mess sometimes. I can give you a picture though!


Sure, it LOOKS all innocent, right? OH, and I forgot to mention that I made two of these but one of them was a complete fail. Apparently when I was poking a few holes into the frozen pie shell with a fork (while still partially frozen, before adding the filling, so it wouldn't bubble up while baking) I may have poked a hole in the bottom that went all the way through the tin foil pie plate. . . so all I was left with in that quiche was, well, onions. I'm sure it tastes good, so I saved it. Good thing I put it on a cookie sheet before putting it in the oven!

We finished off the meal with my favorite carrot cake -- which I added 3/4 cup of raisins too because I think in the past that a whole cup is too much. I decorated it with my mother-in-law:


She did the egg and border, I did the writing :)

Wow, how's that for a long post to catch up for lost times?! I just hope I don't take an unintentional hiatus after this. I've really missed being able to host holidays and other food gatherings, so now that we have SPACE to do it I think we'll be hosting more often. You know what that means -- more cooking (and blogging!) YAY!

Carrot cake is for lovers

I've discovered a new love: carrot cake! It wasn't a love at first, let me tell you. . .

I made this cake for my friend's husband's birthday. She gave me their "family" recipe that he loves because it's plain and simple. It was very easy to make, however getting it out of the pans was quite the task! So note to self: use parchment paper. I think carrot cake is usually sticky by nature, so Baker's Joy cannot be used by itself. The combination of Baker's Joy and parchment paper is key. I will remember this for next time.

The decoration was a combined idea (Jenni and myself) and I'm proud to say that I discovered that I'm not an idiot and can in fact created a simple shell border (see, on the bottom?) I was using the wrong tip in the past. . . haha. Good job. I'm excited to make another carrot cake so I can separate those carrots on top a little more. I got that idea from some web site. . . not sure where it was now that I think about it. But I just used a medium round tip for the carrot and the leaf tip for the tops. It was really easy! I like easy designs that look hard, don't you? So there you go.

I got to taste some of the cake (that stuck to the pan) and it was good, but I made another carrot cake with a different recipe a few days later that had ALL of the fixings. I put it in the freezer and will frost and decorate it later this week for Michelle. Perhaps I'll post a picture of that one too. But this recipe is DELICIOUS! I didn't use the buttermilk glaze, but I imagine it's fantastic. I also used a different recipe for cream cheese frosting (left over from the cake above). So for this new recipe, I just added raisins to it, a little less than a cup, but I would probably add a whole cup next time. And believe me, there will be a next time, and a time after that, and a time after that, and oh my gosh I love it so much.

Cupcake Fever

It was a friend's quarter-century birthday last week, and she's been begging for carrot cake since I last tried to make it for Easter.  You'll recall that at Easter I wanted to make cupcakes, but I had no cupcake pans (HOW?!) and so I made a bundt cake. After that tragedy I quickly bought some cupcake pans, and this time around I made the cupcakes I wanted.  Thanks to the best birthday present ever, Williams-Sonoma mechanical pastry bag, I used the super-large open star tip and swirled the cream cheese frosting on top for a fancy finish!

There is a story in here, although it's not about the baking.  It's about the cupcake pans.  In March when I discovered I had none I was amazed.  I couldn't believe I didn't have cupcake pans - but I decided maybe they had been my old roommates and were left with her in Boston.  On Monday when I went to bake these cupcakes I opened the under-stove drawer where my pans are, and there were no cupcake pans.  I've been doing some major house reorganization lately, so I checked in the cabinet with other pots and pans and baking sheets.  Not there.  Now, I was sure I had two cupcake pans, but I couldn't find them.  I opened the under-stove drawer one more time, and as I did this I accidentally pushed one cake pan over the back edge and into the scary dark abyss.  As I reached my hand back to get the lost cake pan, I heard it clink against something.  So I did some more digging.  And what did I find there??  FOUR cupcake pans.  The two I bought in March nestled snuggly on top of the two I couldn't find in March.  Apparently, the under-stove drawer is constantly stealing my cupcake pans.  But the good news is, now I can make FORTY-EIGHT cupcakes at once!!

An Easter Feast for one!

After the weekend from hell, I decided I would indeed cook an Easter dinner. Luckily I found an open grocery store and picked up some essential ingredients, and at about 7pm I began cooking.

Nothing too fancy, I had some steak tips marinaded already. My mom taught me a trick with these - if you buy your meat ahead of time and freeze it, put the meat and marinade in a ziploc bag and freeze it together. The meat will marinade as it thaws, before you cook it - saving you a step! I also had some zucchini and yellow squash, which I just cut up and threw into a pan with some evoo, and then some frozen green beans - talk about fancy. I bought some potatoes, and made mashed potatoes. I tried something new with these, and put in some grated parmesan cheese, and in fact they were delicious. I bought some pillsbury crescent rolls, and ate about 154 of them!

Last, but not least, I made a carrot cake. I blame Mel for making me crave this. It started off as Carrot Cake Cupcakes, but - I don't seem to have any cupcake pans, is this possible?! So it turned into a Carrot Bundt Cake, and I'd say it came out very well. I followed the same recipe as the cupcakes, but I cooked it a little longer - about 15 minutes at 400 degrees and then maybe 35 or 40 at 350 degrees. I wish I'd used less walnuts though, I'm not a huge fan. I used my hand food chopper with the carrots, and of course I prepared my bundt pan with lots of Baker's Joy! I used a little bit less sugar than the recipe called for the frosting, and I think it came out great - there's a ton left over. I'm going to go dig in with a spoon!