I scream, You scream we all scream w/ cake made with cream!

Mmmm--cake. I haven't cooked from the cookbook in forever, but I have actually cooked. I made these two cakes for Aoife's birthday. The shark cake because it was fun and kick-ass! The Guinness cake I made because, well, it was fun and kick-ass, too!

Sweet, right?

I know you can barely see it, but I did cut out a shamrock and carefully shake cinnamon around the edges so it would have the essence of a shamrock on the cake. For those of you who've been to Ireland, you know that at the Guinness Brewery they use the drippings from the tap to draw a shamrock on the foam. Nice, huh. The recipe didn't even call for something that awesome. That was all me, baby! All me!

French Lentil Soup

I made French Lentil soup. It was nice, but man did it take forever. Barefoot Contessa says you can find French Lentils in specialty stores or order them online. As if? Lucky for me our local market had some. I thought the soup was good, but not great. Mom and Lamont liked it though. I guess that counts for something.

My newest kitchen-aide.

My handy onion chopper. No more tears for me!

Sauteed onions and French Lentils soaking.

Everything mixed together.

Aoife's new favorite spot.

The taste testers.

Ugh!

So I have excuses as to why I haven't cooked anything for the last week and a half.
#1 I've been sick. Who wants someone with bronchitis hacking into their food? No one.
#2 It was Thanksgiving and French Lentil soup isn't exactly considered standard for the soiree.

I'll get back to it soon enough though. Gimme a break Barefoot Contessa, won't you?

Lots of cooking in one week end!

Ahh - so last week end I did quite a bit of cooking. One of my friends was out of town so her husband and kids came over to hang out (and be my tasters). I made Guacamole and Crab Cakes with remoulade sauce. The Guacamole is a pretty standard thing that I have made in the past with a different recipe but thought I would give it a try. It turned out pretty good and was enjoyed by all who tasted it but I think I will stick to the recipe I have used in the past, good ole moms.

The crab cakes were TONS more work. I felt like I was in the kitchen chopping forever! So many ingredients! The guys had also ordered a pizza so they were too full to try the cab cakes that day so I ended up making them the next night for dinner. The cookbook said you could keep the formed crab cakes in the fridge overnight and fry them up the next day. Phil loved them, it made all the chopping worth while. He even brought some over to the neighbors house for them to try. They insisted they were too full but tried them anyway. More rave reviews. The sauce was a hit too.

On to the soups:


So I pretty much do not like split pea soup at all and really do not like looking at it, but for the sake of love I made it for Phil. He really likes the stuff. It was pretty easy to make and I did not need to do much chopping, thank goodness, and I did not have to buy any super crazy ingredients. The soup also got a thumbs up.

I made the croutons to go with the soup, the picture was so nice looking, the croutons only okay. It is a lot less work to just use the store bought ones.

Kelly and Barefoot - All the cooking I did tasted good and I would make it again. The crab cakes were tons of work and I would only make them for a special occasion. I should also tell you that Phil really was not on board for this cooking blog thing but has definitely changed his mind!

Finally...something I love!

Mmmm French Onion Soup...
While this recipe called for a whole lotta crap I didn't have, the amounts were the right size. I was able to buy what I needed and not have stuff I'll rarely use sitting around going bad (aka the chicken stock from the last recipe. 2008 is "pretty close" to 2000 when you consider how long the Earth's been around).

I chose this recipe because Monty LOVES French Onion Soup. See what a good wifey I am? I made this FOR HIM. I should totally get birthday or anniversary credit for this!

Thanks to the neighbors for keeping "the good stuff" on hand when it comes to needing 1/4 cup of Courvoisier on hand. Thanks for tip about "taking a nip" before using it for cooking. It was smmmooothhh (cough, cough)

Barefoot Contessa--another bone to pick with you. You should address how to dispose of ingredient parts not used in the recipes. For example, lets say "someone" had a ton of onion parts left over and didn't want to put them in the compost bucket because, well, it would stink-to-high-heaven-and-we-fight-over-who-takes-that-nasty-bucket-out-and-it-gets-all-moldy-before-one-of-us-breaks-down-and-begrudgingly-does-it. But, I digress. "Someone" might find it easier to toss them in the sink and rinse away the cares of stinky onions in their garbage disposal. (Really, isn't that why we buy those things?) Why not mention that onion skins can stick to the sides of the drain and cause the sink to back up? Why, really? I mean, isn't clean up part of cooking? Just one little side note would really help a sister out, ya know?

The clean up crew.

Um...remember that part about "I made this for you." I'd like to use that credit now.

Oh yeah...I MADE those croutons, too.

I shared a bowl of the soup with my neighbors who gave me the Courvoisier. I was told (and I quote) "That soup was delicious." I think I could get used to this.

Smellevision would behoove us all!

Smellevision- the ability to not only see something, but smell it through the tv.

Each of the recipes I've attempted, while not the best in taste tests, fares extremely well in the "odoriferous" category. If only the cyber-gods would allow that to come through you'd be so much more thoroughly impressed with my culinary skills. The tasting part, meh, not so much.

With these recipes, I'm posting while cooking and will also post afterwards. So far, I'm disappointed by the level of culinary awareness required to just prepare the recipe. I had to LOOK UP how to cut fennel. What average American knows that, Barefoot Contessa? Huh? Also, since I don't keep green onions just hanging around the kitchen, it seems a bit wasteful to have to buy an entire bunch of them in order to get 1 TBSP for the herb butter spread. C'mon!

My internet friends who taught me how to cut fennel.

The fennel and yellow onions were SUPPOSED to be the same amount. Oh, well!

I invited our good friend Amy over along with her cute kiddos, Ava & Kamari. They were my guinea pigs for smoked salmon tea sandwiches and roasted potato & fennel soup.

This is what they looked like BEFORE eating the sandwiches & soup!

Amy--if you read this posting sorry. I used expired bouillon for the stock in the soup. Really! Who knew that stuff expired? Never mind that the measuring spoon BENT while I was scooping out the powder. The soup tasted great anyways. You'd have never know if I hadn't told you.

Expiration, smexperiation.

All was well. I guess I can't be too surprised that Ava preferred PB & J to the smoked salmon tea sandwiches, but I guess you can't please everyone!

Would this be considered "room temperature?" Apparently the microwave fails miserably at getting butter to room temperature. Again, Barefoot Contessa, how would I know that?

The smoked salmon tea sandwiches placed against my fall decorated table.

These recipes were great. I can see making the sandwiches for a get together. They were easy and tasty. Smoked salmon makes them seem fancy. BONUS: smoked salmon means a trip to Trader Joes! The soup was also quite easy--with the exception of fennel and my lack of knowledge about how to cut it. I had less than 1/4 of what the recipe called for. I wonder how the full amount would change it?

I'll be taking my leftover sandwiches to work on Monday to share with a coworker. He's pretty interested in my cooking attempts!

Some new taste testers

This time around I made turkey tea sandwiches and sun-dried tomato dip. I had some new taste testers. I was a little worried when I mentioned to Phil and my Dad that they would be tasting tea sandwiches I would get a "not a chance, I am not trying that", both surprised me and jumped right in.

The turkey tea sandwiches were first, a little Halloween lunch. They were pretty easy to make and I used fruit nut bagels and a little raisin bread we had on hand. The secret to these was the scallion cream cheese. Everyone loved them and had one the next day! Phil liked the cream cheese spread so much he has mentioned how great it was numerous times, sometimes at very odd moments. I will definitely be making these again. Very easy and makes for a little different spin on a turkey sandwich.

The finished product

You want me to try a tea sandwich!?!?!?!?

This is great!

Grace liked it too.

The sun dried tomato dip was a little appetizer before dinner. I cut the recipe in half since there were only three of us trying it. This was pretty easy as well and did get eaten. I served it with pretzels, regular potato chips, and tostidos, but I am sure it would be good with some veggies. It was not quite the hit as the sandwiches but did get a thumbs up. I deleted the only picture of the finished product I had. Oops.

Yum!

Kelly and Barefoot Contessa - These were very easy to make and I will be making both again in some form or another! Also I have been using low fat or reduced fat in all the recipes when possible as I have high cholesterol. I am not sure if they would taste any better and since I have not had them the other way. I will continue to make them with the lower fat ingredients.

I am glad that both recipes were good otherwise I think I would be down a taster.