Currently listening to The Sea and Cake and it put me in the mood to do some blogging. Recently, I've discovered a glorious internet joy called Pandora. I'm sure EVERYONE has been using it for the past 8 three years already but I was always skeptical (Music Genome Project as in DNA? HA!) How could the internet know and understand my musical depth?? How could it know what I liked and didn't?? All I can say now is that I'm extremely impressed. Not only does it access a fantastic amount of lesser known songs, it shows you artists that you've never even heard of who fit into your tastes. I know this is probably old news for some but I just thought I'd give an ode to this genius.

I guess there's been some interesting things going on since my last blog 5 days ago. I am now jobless..which is liberating and scary at the same time since my livelihood depends on a steady income. There are a couple jobs lined up so I'm not that worried...but I always have a habit of worrying so I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I won't talk in detail because I don't want to jinx it but I can honestly say that it will be the best thing to happen to me in awhile if I get this job. This is me seriously asking someone...anyone out there to pray for me :) Right now though, I'm excessively enjoying my time off.


This weekend was pretty busy with Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, and a couple playdates planned out. On Thursday, Jennet and Josh invited us to Wiseguys to see one of their friends do a show. It was actually really enjoyable and I definitely think it would be nice to go every once in awhile just to laugh a little. We spent the day on Saturday hanging out with Jennet, Josh, Emma, and Jesse's mom. Then we had a hot pot get together at my Dad's for Chinese New Year (hot pot YUM!) For Valentine's Day Jesse made me breakfast (French Toast and Fruit) then we just spent the day shopping for one another and watching movies. He'll be buying me a sweet pair of cream colored Toms that I can't help but love. I couldn't get them in the store because the sales people were rude but I will be getting them. After our busy day, I made us dinner. We had:

Butternut Squash Soup
Salmon with Potatoes and Roasted Garlic Broccoli
Molten Chocolate Cakes with Vanilla Ice Cream

The cakes were divine. SO easy to make and SO delicious. I might be biased on the level of skill because I had Pistachio on hand to make sure everything was o.k. but honestly, totally easy and totally rewarding. It makes it look like you spent hours on this chic dessert that people order at 5 star restaurants in Manhattan. Jesse was definitely impressed and again, Domestic Goddess points! The key part is to pop them out of the custard cups right out of the oven without breaking them. Obviously with burning hot glass against you, thoroughly buttering the cups in the beginning is SO important. Anyways, the recipe said you could use whipped cream to cut the chocolate since it's so rich but I decided to use ice cream to make it a hot and cold dessert which I definitely think is the way to go.

I'm going to go back and put up some pictures of the brownies I made last week on that earlier post as I promised, and also a few pics from dinner and such. We also decided that Valentine's will be our chosen holiday when we go all out and send people cards since we're too good for Christmas and any other holiday that people typically send cards on. We handmade each one and it was so much fun since I've never handmade a pretty card before! I'll post pictures of thee pictures we had in them too. This weekend is when we're planning on doing the Post-Sundance dinner since it's been so busy for the last couple of weeks but more on that menu later.

Valentine's Dinner



Molten Cake


Jesse all done


The card is pretty self explanatory. These are the pics we didn't use.

Ok so I have to admit that I've done something bad. Usually I am a healthy baker, very conscious of what I'm incorporating and trying for the healthiest and freshest ingredients. Tonight, I unknowingly (or by some miracle) got myself deep into a brownie recipe that literally pulled out all of the stops. First, I scanned the recipe for the basics like checking to see if I had most of the ingredients, how long it would take, and if it was very labor intensive. It seemed pretty straightforward and I was excited because I haven't really tested any brownie recipes. I ran to the store and stood in the baking aisle for a good 15 minutes contemplating the idea of getting high quality bittersweet chocolate which is excessively expensive and therefore, something I've never done. Using the freshest and highest quality ingredients, especially for dishes that are all about one ingredient (brownies=chocolate) is the best way to get the best results. So I decided to splurge and totally went for it.


It wasn't until I got home and actually started melting the chocolate that I realized (after reading it 7 times) that I was supposed melt about a pound of butter along with it. Not only that, the recipe called for 6-count them SIX-eggs. Well needless to say this recipe has cleaned out my pantry staples but I am so happy I knocked down my biggest, unhealthiest, recipe of the year so far.

Now as I sit in bed with the smell of warm chocolate still wafting in the air, I actually feel like a Domestic Goddess (Thanks Nigella!) Jesse is in utter bliss with my brownie adventure and I have made him promise to let me freeze them so we can eat them slowly as not to kill over in heart attacks. Different variations to come in the the near future, but now that I've conquered a good basic brownie recipe those shouldn't be too hard. Lesson learned today: USE the best quality chocolate for the best quality brownie! It is totally true and I promise you won't regret it.

Look at that pound of butter...

..and how it all melts away!

Go Saints! Not because I like them...but since both of my teams didn't come close to making the Superbowl and the fact that I HATE the Colts..the Saints become the natural choice. Plus it's nice to have an "underdog" come and make Peyton eat it. We're going to Jeff and Andrea's house today for the game and I'm bringing a grasshopper sheet cake. It's basically a chocolate cake with mint frosting. The added detail that makes it Superbowl worthy are Andes mints in the shape of little footballs on each individual piece. You just have to cut the corners off of the mints and voila! Easy peasy. I was going to make the cake from scratch along with a new method of making frosting that I read about and wanted to try, but I am in Sandy at Jesse's dad's house today without my mixer (which henceforth shall be called Pistachio). Since the frosting involves warming egg whites then whipping them into oblivion (which is an amazing concept that makes the frosting fluffy yet firm with no raw egg-age) a hand held whisk would've taken me to the next century, and alas, no hand held mixer in Sandy.

So to the horror of myself, my boyfriend, and probably you, dear reader, I will be buying Pillsbury Devil's Food Cake Mix, which will stand in for my chocolate cake, and Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting which I will flavor with Peppermint extract as a ginormous substitute to the whipped-egg-creme de menthe-concept. I felt that I needed to confess this travesty to someone or something and here it is..in cyberspace. On a brighter note this will fulfill a strict personal belief that I have developed. Based on a past experience that will irk me till the day I die: Always ALWAYS bring something to a party/event/social gathering that you were personally invited to and that you did not help plan. It doesn't matter if it's a present, a bottle of wine, or food enough to share, just something. Even if the host says to bring nothing, you bring something anyways. It is just basic thoughtfulness, and to be honest (based on this past experience) I think it's ridiculously rude not to. Of course there may be exceptions, but very rare exceptions. In fact I think the guidelines mentioned earlier pretty much cover any exceptions.
Bring something if:
1. You did not plan or help plan the party.
2. You were invited, not doing the inviting.

I must sound pretty anal sometimes..but everyone has their pet peeves and personal preferences for everything. Well I'm off to the store for my cake. Pics up soon. Go Saints!