Behaving like a good ‘wife’ February 7, 2008

I’ve known my best friend Carlitos since we started college.  We were both early admissions and were crazy enough to be taking Psychology together for pre-admission summer session.  That’s a solid four and a half years of love and friendship.  Every girl needs her gay husband, and he’s mine. 

So, he was kind enough today to be my last stitch effort to find cupcake liners at the supermarket.  What began as a listing of about 4 items, turned into a listing of about 20.  He kindly pushed the cart as we went up and down every single aisle.  As we neared the end of our journey, I was feeling quite victorious at FINALLY getting the darn cupcake cups.  As we’re passing the freezer section, he pulls out the only impulse purchase he wanted, some carrot cake.  Aghast, I managed very tranquil tones as I informed him that I could very easily make him a carrot cake.  Then the plan expanded, I would serve up some delicious dinner for some friends with the carrot cake being the gorgeous dessert.  It was perfect, I had most of what I needed.  We doubled back and grabbed the last few items.  Thankfully the check out lines weren’t long, but the cashier was a ditz.  When I filled out a little complaint form saying they didn’t have cupcake baking molds, she looked at me like I had three heads.  It seemed not a lot of people complain about not finding what they need!  But, I was not about to go quietly into the night.  I’d had enough of searching for simple things and being unable to attain them! 

Everyone who enters my kitchen gets put to work!

                    

• left: Carlitos shredding carrots for the cake.
• middle: Carlos (another one) creaming the butter and sugar.
• right: Kidany (my housemate) doing the dishes.

 Alright, so I don’t have a lot of counter space.  But I get the job done!

This is the chicken as it gets sauteed.  Essentially I stir fried a chopped medium yellow onion in some olive oil until transluscent, course chopped 3 cloves of garlic and chunk chopped some chicken breast and tenders.  When the chicken was browned, I covered it and let cook on medium for 5 minutes.  Then I proceeded to dump half a jar of alfredo sauce into the pan and about half a cup of pasta water.  I lowered the heat and covered it until the pasta was cooked.  Since I’m a one pot finishing wonder, when the spaghetti was drained, I mixed in the remaining sauce.  Carefully I placed the chicken and sauce and layered on top with parmesan cheese.  I let the pot sit for 5 minutes and sprinkled with scallions for some color. 

I might have made too much salad but it looks so pretty!

 

  Yum!                             He put bbq sauce on it! Oy!

 

  And now we finish dessert!

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon or vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups shredded carrot
• 1 8oz. package cream cheese
• 1 stick butter
• 3 cups (approximately) powdered sugar

1. Preheat over to 325F and grate carrots.
2. Cream butter and sugar.  Slowly add in eggs.
3. Mix in carrots and then slowly add flour with the other dry ingredients.
4. Bake for 40 -50 minutes or until toothpick tested in center comes clean.
5. Prepare frosting by creaming together cream cheese, vanilla and butter.  Slowly blend in sugar until desired consistency.  This tends to be a little runny, but place in fridge or freezer to it to set and firm.

   It’s REALLY tough to control the temperature in the oven at my apartment.  I did the best I could with the three layers and I watched them very closely.  By rotating them, I found the best spot and they were done at different times.  But, it was all good! 

I decorated it with some random dried cranberries I had on hand.

The first bite is always the best.

Final Review: Dinner was super simple but super delicious.  The onions just melted away in the cooking and the breast was really nice and tender.  The pasta itself wasn’t too full of sauce and the salad was crisp and delicious.  As for the cake, it was a super huge hit.  I actually didn’t have any cinnamon, so I used vanilla extract instead.  I love this cake, it’s so light.  And Carlitos left Zombie in my fridge.  I told him that since it was forgotten, not it’s fair game.  I wonder what a cupcake made with it will taste like………

The Passion of the dried fruit February 7, 2008

 The cherries have been soaking since Saturday night, the dried cranberries were set in on Monday evening and the dried pineapple were placed in last night.  With the dried fruit, it was about 3/4 cups to about 1/2 cup liquor.  For the 24 cupcakes I’m hoping to make, I’m going to halve the cherries.  There are 14 because I just KNEW I wouldn’t be able to slice them and add them as decor without giving them a taste.  (Ha!  I’m brilliant, I thought ahead like that!)

I’m not very sure what I’m going to do with the pineapple.. but oh, well… I don’t think it’ll hurt them any.  If all else fails with the experiment, there is always just a spoon to go with.  And maybe a splash of orange juice into the bowls…