Ebbing and Flowing and Cooking and Not Cooking

Here's a recipe for you that essentially describes my will to cook ever since Easter.

• Buy a packet of tortellini from the grocery store (or two packets if you live with a Lars).
• Boil water
• Put tortellini in the water until done
• Serve with sauce from a jar that you microwave because you're too lazy to even heat it up in a sauce pan.
• Sometimes cut up cucumbers to eat as your "vegetable accompanient" but mainly just consider the tomato sauce as your vegetable serving.
• Cry for your to-be-borned child's already pitiful nutritional existence.
• Eat some frozen yogurt and be a little happier.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

She cooked!

Well, baked. For Easter, I made Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake, recipe from The Cottage cookbook (thank you, Jensens!):

16 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped OR 8 oz semisweet plus 8 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
9 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line with parchment paper a 10-inch springform pan. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler over simmering water. Remove from the heat and cool to a lukewarm temperature. Stir in the vanilla. In a medium bowl beat the egg yolks with the sugar until thick and the color is light. Fold in the cooled chocolate. In a separate below beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour the batter into the springform pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center is barely set. Cool and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before removing the sides of the pan. Makes 10 servings.

Yes, I typed it correctly and you read it correctly. There are NINE eggs in the recipe and the chocolate comes out to somewhere around 3 cups. Makes the half a pound of butter sound pretty ok.

It's rich, but v yummy. Some lessons - I baked it for 30 minutes because my gas (boo) oven usually takes extra time for baking, but I wish I'd stopped it at 25. The center is gooey wonderful, but the outer edges, while fine, are not as moist as I would like. Also, I would serve it with raspberries or strawberries because it's very rich. Steve likes it with chocolate ice cream. Somehow, in his world, this cuts the intense sweetness. The best part? It's quite easy to make and could look pretty impressive with some berries, a platter and very little effort. Of course I forgot to take pictures before it was all sliced up.

Easter Dessert-Turtle Cake!

Well--since I made my great grandmother's spaghetti for Easter Dinner, it only seemed fitting that I made my other great grandmother's turtle cake for Easter Dessert. Neither of them are very "Eastery"-but that's okay. I guess I just wasn't really in the mood to experiment with something I have never cooked before. Hello, Lazy Bones.

Here it is in all its glory...

Turtle Cake

1 box of German Chocolate cake mix
1 14 oz package of caramels
½ cup evaporated milk
1 cube butter
1 package of chocolate chips
1 cup pecans

Prepare cake mix according to box instructions. Pour ½ of batter in a 9x13 greased pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Unwrap and melt in microwave caramels and ½ cup milk and 1 cube of butter. Stir until creamy.

Remove cake from oven and sprinkle top with 1 package of chocolate chips and 1 cup of pecans (chopped). Pour caramel mixture over pecans and chocolate chips. Then top with remaining batter. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Before serving sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Date with a cupcake

NYC's best cupcakes
Om nom nom. I am seriously jonesing for a cupcake now!

Erika, when you get back to SD we have to try that new cupcake place at UTC. Perhaps we should all start scoping out the best cupcake places in our respective (present and future) cities for the blog too. "Turning paper into cupcakes!"

Ginger Cookies

Now, I realize that Ginger Cookies are generally a "harvest" treat--something to be enjoyed over the holidays with some nice glog...but when it snows in April sometimes you just gotta regress and bring back that nice ginger cookie smell into the house before you go insane from all the white stuff outside.

I tried this recipe. I was hoping they would be chewy. They were not but they were still good.

Good enough to eat. Nom Nom Nom.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/ginger-cookies-recipe2/index.html

(YES IT IS A PAULA DEEN RECIPE. DON'T JUDGE ME, PLS).

Okay speaking of dessert-like things...does anyone have any good suggestions for a dessert to make for Easter? We're hosting and while I already gave the caveat that I will not (NOT!) be making ham or lamb (Easter Spaghetti anyone?)...I was hoping to make a nice springish dessert.

O M G

Taking Macaroni & Cheese to a new level. I double dawg dare someone to make this and (more importantly) eat it and (even MORE importantly) live to tell the tale...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/ladys-fried-mac-recipe/index.html

HOW/WHY DO YOU FRY MACARONI AND CHEESE?

As my friend Geoff says:
Chest seizing. White light. No, wait, not light -- white chedder? Take me lord!