4 posts tagged “birthday”
Today is the Husband's birthday, so as something special I made sort of croissants while he was in the shower. My quick and easy food enabler, the Kraft food magazine, had a recipe in the most recent issue for "blueberry cheese rolls", which looked good. Of course, we're more of the mindset that if you put blueberries in something, it should be muffins, but all recipes are modifiable. Instead of blueberries I used chocolate chips on a couple, and chopped up leftover strawberries from last night's dessert on the other two. They came out really well, all soft and gooey. I had a chocolate one and the chips that were under the folded dough came out all nice and mushy. The Husband had a strawberry one and didn't say much about it, he was too busy eating.
We really liked these rolls and they were super easy to do. I'm thinking that the next time we have brunch I'll make these for all involved and play around with fillings. I wonder how things would taste if I used jam instead of fresh fruit? Or maybe pumpkin butter? Hmmm. Well worth the experiment.
Originally for the Husband's birthday, I had planned on making a Dalek cake. Unfortunately, I am a lazy whore. Saturday when we were planning the menu for our Father's Day/Husband's birthday lunchapalooza, I told him I had planned on making him a Dalek cake, but it was a lot of work and since it was going to be rather hot and humid on Sunday, maybe that wasn't the best of ideas. I did admit I'd been mulling Dalek cupcakes over in my head, but hadn't quite figured the logistics yet. The Husband was super excited about this entire venture. He requested the Daleks be made of banana cake, his favorite, and made some suggestions for various details on the cupcakes and we were good to go. Or so I thought...
Saturday before Mass we hit the grocery store and I got the banana cake mix, a box of swiss cake rolls and some chocolate chips and heavy cream to make ganache. While the Husband was at Mass, I made the cupcakes. I used a mixture of round and square silicone baking cups, because I wanted to play with the shapes a bit. Then, later that night, I took the cupcakes out of the cups and hit snag number 1. The square silicone cups released just fine. The round ones? Not so much. What had originally started out as 10 square cupcakes and 12 round ones was now 10 square cupcakes and 6 slightly mangled but usable enough ones. Okay, fine, less work for me. The original plan had been to turn the cupcakes upside down and top them with half a swiss cake roll that I peeled the chocolate from- before you have a clutch the pearls moment, I was going to cover the whole thing in ganache. I figured leaving the chocolate on and then coating it with ganache was a bit too gilding the lily. This is when I hit snags number two and three- half a swiss cake roll wasn't enough on top of the square cupcake,
Sunday when I got up I started right in on the cupcakes. I started the ganache and while it cooled I cut the swiss cake rolls in half and peeled them. After that was done I attached them to the cupcake bodies with toothpicks.
Thankfully, A showed up when I was in the detailing phase, so I put her to work coating everything with ganache.
Originally my thought had been to just pour ganache over everything, but after A tried that with the first one we realized that wasn't going to work. I got out a brush and A painted the cupcake bodies with ganache, then passed them over to me so I could put on the skirt bumps- chocolate chips.
The cupcakes went over really well. Everyone thought they were both cute and tasty. There was some joking going on about how they were possibly Elvis Dalek cupcakes, since the components were peanut butter and banana, and let me tell you, it's hard to do a Dalek voice with an Elvis accent. All in all, this project was a lot of fun, and the Husband loved them, which is what's really important. However, I hope he enjoyed them, because I'm not entirely certain I'm going to do that ever again! :^)
And here they are!
I swear, these were the socks of "Wait, what? You mean I have to do this again? Crap!" There were a lot of pattern repeats in these socks. I figured that you did leg pattern 1 for the top band, then moved on to leg pattern 2. Seems like a logical progression, right? Not so much. You knit leg pattern 1, then do a purl band, then leg pattern one twice more before you get to leg pattern 2. Then it's move on to the heel flap, but oh! Do the heel flap pattern twice! Gah. It seemed like every time I'd finished a section I'd think yay! Done! and then I'd read the directions and realize nope, do it again. This was cause for frequent bits of frustration when I knit sock number 1.
I will admit, knitting these socks made me realize just how far I'd come as a knitter. When I first started knitting I was so afraid to pull out mistakes. I'd painstakingly tink out what I'd knitted incorrectly because I was too afraid to rip things out and then restring it on the needles, or else I'd think eh, only I will know it's there. With this project, though, I ripped out entire sections because of the aforementioned "Wait, I was supposed to do this section again?!" Ripping out lace is a scary project, especially without something like a guide line, but I did it and nothing horrible happened, and that really made me feel like a pro knitter.
What did I really like about this project? Well, one of the things that made me pick the pattern is the detail along the heel flap/gusset. Let's have a look.
Also, check out the bad angle from which I shot this picture. It makes me look like I have stumpy feet and fat ankles. Rock!
I swear, these socks are super soft. it's like getting a foot massage with a silk cloth. I almost feel guilty wearing them. I mean, putting something this soft and luxurious on your feet? On your feet where they'll get beat on and rubbed until they get pilly and might wear out? Yeah, I know, but they're pink and pretty and soft- holy crap, so soft!- and silky and I love them. I'm not sure where I'll wear them- not to bed, because I get super warm when I sleep and that would mean sweating in them. Not around the house, because my floors don't stay clean for long and I don't want the bottoms to get skanky. Not in shoes, because I don't want to wear them out. I think I've created the ultimate problem- something too good to live. Or, in this case, socks too nice to wear.
My birthday was last Friday and oh, the cavalcade of food there was. Let's break it down...
Friday lunch- Pasquale's, the Italian place that's a block and a half from our house. For every birthday we request cookie monsters, which are two chocolate chip cookies stuck together with blue frosting. They have eyes on top made of whipped cream with a chocolate chip. It's really diabetes on a plate, which is why we can only ever manage part of one at a time. If you eat the whole thing, you end up shaking the rest of the afternoon. Best part? It turns your entire mouth blue. Your lips are blue, your teeth are blue, your tongue is blue, and then you can run around work making faces at everyone. Awesome. Also good? Other things that come out of you later are blue. Seriously, we're either going to end up diabetic or with some odd cancer. We also requested there be Italian wedding soup, because there hasn't been the last couple times the Husband and I have been there and we both love it. I love going there because we've been going so long everyone there knows us and what we like, so that really makes it extra special.
Friday dinner- Claddagh. Because I was in the mood for fish and chips. The hostess and her minion were rather stuck up and seated us in the far corner of the restaurant, by the patio doors, so whenever anyone came in, we'd get a gust of air. It was freezing! Our kind server let us move to the table right under the heating vent which helped our upper bodies, but my feet were blocks of ice when we left. Best part? The bitchface on the hostess when we moved. Ha! Anyway, mmmmm fish, and a German beer, and flourless chocolate cake, made with Guinness, served with tons of whipped cream. Very good.
Saturday morning's birthday "cake" excursion- I am a big fan of the Restaurant Widow, a local food blogger, and when she mentioned the Pistachio bakery I went to their website to check it out and immediately fell in lust with the delicious looking pastries. Rather than get a birthday cake, I decided a trip there was in order.
The bakery itself is tucked away on a street that runs parallel to the main street through the city, so after I'd googled the address I had a vague idea how to get there. I directed the Husband towards the place where we park when I go to knit group, because I vaguely remembered that the street ran into the back of the parking lot, and I was right! We turned into the parking lot, then went out the back and there we were. Of course, later I realized we could have turned a block earlier and not had to go through the lot, but whatever. We followed the street, which is more like an alley, and completely missed the place the first time past. I saw it as we were driving by, which was okay since we would have had to come back around to park anyway. The Husband managed to angle himself into an awkward parking spot and in we went.
Since there was no one in there, the people were very kind and helpful with us. Heck, even after people came in they were still super kind and patient. The girl behind the counter greeted us and after I said it was our first time in, she came around the counter and started explaining things, pointing things out, handed us a menu and told us to ask if we had any questions. After about five minutes of ooooooohing, we finally started asking questions about words we'd never seen, like manjari and guanaja. I had thought I'd pick out two things, but since it was my birthday the Husband splurged and we each got three. I got the Chambord manjari feuilletine, the Grand Marnier guanaja truffle torte and a mini Rosa Regale bombe. The Husband got himself a bombe as well, and a mini blueberry cheesecake and a cassis ganache torte. How lovely are these?
What led to Saturday lunch- Again, the Restaurant Widow had mentioned pierogi and where to get fresh ones, so we drove out to Krystyna's Deli and had an experience similar to hers. We got some potato cheese and some mushroom and he asked how I planned on cooking them- fried in butter and onion, of course! I got home and immediately fried up the potato and cheese ones. Amazing! When you eat a steady diet of frozen pierogi from the store, you tend to forget how flavorful and good fresh pierogi are. It's like having mashed potatoes from a box, then eating ones from scratch. No comparison. I forced the Husband to have a bite- he doesn't like pierogi, because he doesn't like mashed potatoes. He loved these, though. I'm glad I tipped the guy a lot, because, pierogi!
Saturday dinner- During Friday dinner conversation, I'd mentioned that I really liked this chicken dish D makes that's about 80% sour cream, so she offered to make it for me Saturday night. This dish has rotisserie chicken, mixed with whatever's in the sour cream sauce, and then it's topped with a box of stuffing and baked and it's just really tasty, probably because it contains so much sour cream. Dessert was brownie trifle, which is a bowl with layers of pudding, brownies, strawberries and whipped cream, which I also love, so Saturday night I was a happy person indeed.
Sunday brunch- Sunday brunch was at my favorite brunch place, Cap City. I love Cap City because they have a version of the bacon crack- they don't do theirs with cayenne, and more's the pity. Normally when I'm there, I get their Really Great French Toast, because it is really great, it's not just the name. This time out, though, I was more in an egg mood so I got the Eggs Benedict, which was good. It came with asparagus. Unfortunately it's the wrong time of year for asparagus, but it wasn't too bad. Because it was my birthday I got dessert for free, so I chose their cup o chocolate cake. It's a huge mug with warm melty chocolate cake inside, topped with a mountain of ice cream. The best part about eating this? When you'd take out a spoonful and the cake would steam. Oh so tasty. Fantastic. Indeed.
I mention all this, but then I didn't include our trip to Scrambler's for brunch during the week, which was great, or the trip to Jeni's, because come on, you have to have Jeni's for birthday week. There's a lot I left out, and I apologize, but it's a lot of food! Something's bound to get forgotten. So that would be my birthday eating. There's a mountain of leftovers in the fridge right now, waiting for me to eat them and remember just how great my birthday was in terms of food. Woohoo! Of course I've probably gained a ton, but my birthday only comes once, right?
