The Perfect Party Cake That Almost Was...

Well, apparantly there is something on this great big world wide web called 'The Daring Bakers'. They have monthly challenges and they BAKE some amazing stuff. I stumbled upon it quite innocently. I was reading Jen's blog, as as per usual, she had made something AMAZING. It was this Perfect Party Cake. Of course, as per usual, her creation was GORGEOUS and PERFECT. It was my father in laws birthday and I thought to myself, 'huh, I can make that cake for him'.

Famous last words.

Now, I consider myself a pretty good cook. I can throw things together with the best of them, but I am the first to admit I am a pretty half assed baker. Cooking is creativity, but baking, baking is CHEMISTRY. And cakes?? Pretty, perfect party cakes?? Well, those are pure CALCULUS. At least for me. I am messy and don't have the patience for perfection. Plus, you have to get those pesky measurements right and pans lined with parchment paper and so on and so forth.

I could have stuck with my tried and true chocolate cake that I am quite famous for, but Jen's cake was so amazing and pretty, that I found myself inspired.

So, join me as I make HALF of a perfect party cake! I am just putting the pictures that I liked up, they may or may not be helpful, so if you want stuff like the recipe and useful step by steps, you are going to have to refer back to Jen's blog!

One thing I loved about this cake was the lemon! I love lemon and I love lemon zest:



In this recipe, you had to mix the sugar with the zest, I used fructose:



So, I followed the directions perfectly, and I think my cake pans were a WEE bit wider than they should have been, but when I took them out of the oven, they were FLAT as pancakes! My hopes for a 4 layer cake were quickly dashed, but luckily, I have been blessed with a quick thinking mind and I decided right then and there to cut them in half and make 4 layers of HALF of a Perfect Party Cake:



Jen says that maybe the egg whites caused the cakes to collapse, and speaking of egg whites, on to the frosting. This frosting was some weird merangue number. I have never made a buttercream frosting that had egg whites in it, but I gave it go.

nice peaks:



I had to add an entire box of icing sugar to get a good spreadable consistency:



And lots more fresh lemon juice:




Then came the task of putting it all together. Here is where I got a bit nervous. The cake consists of 4 layers of raspberry jam, lemon butter cream frosting and lemon cake. So, I got to stacking my 4 halves.

First, homemade raspberry jam:



The recipe called for SEEDLESS raspberry jam.

Ummm, really?? NO.

I just used good old wholesome regular jam. Cake, frosting, jam. Cake, frosting, jam. Cake, frosting, jam. Cake, frosting:



Then I covered it with the rest of the frosting:



Topped the sucker with fresh raspberries:



And enjoyed every bite:

Well Hello there, little ones!!!

So, one week into the science fair project going on in my laundry room, here are the initial results:



I have SPROUTS!!!!

Now, in all my planting excitement, I forgot to label the suckers, and we have a few issues going on. The main one being that only HALF of the seeds have chosen to come forth into this world.

Here is little greenhouse number 1:



As you can see, whatever it is I planted in the front is popping up quite nicely!! Whatever is in the back is being a bit shy. I got NOTHIN'!!

But greenhouse number 1 has got quite the lead on greenhouse number 2:



Now, that is just sad. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was at LEAST that they TRY!!!! C'MON guys!!!!

I can't imagine what I was thinking in NOT labeling what was what when I planted the seeds a week ago! If any of them survive, it will be interesting to see who was made of stronger stuff! Will it be the red tomatoes? The yellow ones? The bell peppers? The jalepenos? or the out of place in Norway Tomatillos?? What is your guess??

So, now not only do we have a little science fair project happening, we also have a mystery on our hands.

Grow, little ones, GROW!!!!

How lovely is the silence of growing things.

I'm not sure where it all began, but somewhere along the line I really fell in love with the whole idea of growing THINGS.

I remember once in the early 90's, my cousin DJ and I and our friend Joel, decided it would be a good idea to completely till up the HUGE backyard of my uncle and aunts house and re-seed the grass as well as plant a HUGE garden. And by huge I mean something like 20 feet by 20 feet. On the appointed day, we worked so hard from the CRACK of dawn. It was truly back breaking work. We all trooped up to Home Depot at some point and walked into the HUGE space where they had rows and rows of every imaginable vegetable. We picked tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, squash and I am sure some other stuff, not to mention basil, cilantro, dill and other herbs. We took it all home, transferred them out of their little pots and plopped them into the ground, fertilized it, watered it and collapsed into bed.

The memories are a bit fuzzy now, but a few hours later I woke up to a roaring sound and what appeared to be strobe lights in my bedroom. I was very confused and disoriented, and while I was trying to figure out how someone had set up a RAVE in my bedroom without me knowing while I slept, the door FLEW open and I saw DJ and he was SCREAMING (although it looked like he was mouthing the words) 'WHAT'S GOING ON??'. I had slept with the windows open and suddenly the door that DJ had just flung open, SLAMMED with such force in his face. It was suddenly VERY clear what was going on.

Tornado.

I flew out of the bed and the suction of the door was so strong, it took everything in me to open it. DJ was still hysterical in the hallway and at this point my aunt and uncle were also in the hallway and then there was another crash. We didn't stick around to investigate, we all hustled downstairs and proceeded to get stuck trying to go 4 at a time down the stair well to the basement. If we weren't so terrified, it would have been hilarious.

As quickly as it had begun, it was quiet again. We sat huddled in the basement for the next 4 hours as night became day, and when we were certain no more tornadoes were coming to suck us up, we ventured outside. We were walking down the street and it looked like a bomb had gone off. Huge pine trees laying across the road, smashed cars and broken windows. We were lucky. Suddenly DJ and I remembered our precious garden!!

In all of the DRAMA, we had forgotten it, but we quickly hightailed it back to our house and ran into the back yard.

It was a miracle my friends.

It was as if God Himself, had placed His very own hand over our little patch of vulnerable vegetables. Apart from a few stray limbs and branches, our hard work was still in tact.

I cannot tell you how relieved we were.

However our gratitude was quickly forgotten about a month into this whole gardening process. Noone had told us we had to weed the sucker. Water it. Prune little vegetable limbs. Check for blight and bugs and other plant illnesses. Sheesh. It was like having a KID, but like 25 of them. So, it was like having a daycare center! Each little plant had to be looked after.

Somehow we persevered. Alot of things died in the tornado garden of 1998, but against all odds we had a healthy little crop of tomatoes and peppers.

And what can only be credited to 'tornado magic', we had a MUTANT basil plant that had actually turned into a basil TREE. It was GIGANTIC. I promise you have NEVER seen anything like it! We had Basil coming out of our ears!!

Yes. Good times.

So, since then, I have never undertook anything quite so grand. There was alot to live up to. How could I ever top the tornado garden???

Space is at a premium here in Norway. I have never had any space to plant a garden. But, we bought a new apartment with a balcony this past year and I decided that THIS would be the year that I planted my very first married persons garden!

I don't think I need to tell you that there is no Home Depot here in Norway. We do have a few respectable gardening centers and we decided TODAY was the day that we would go and pick out our little garden babies.

Now, there are not rows and rows of little seeded vegetable plants at my local gardening center, but they DO have FURRY chickens:



They ARE furry!!!

So, here in Norway, we start our gardens from seeds. Actual little seeds, which I must admit, has me totally intimidated. I can handle transferring a juevenile plant from it's little container and putting it into the ground to flourish into adulthood, however, this is a completely different animal!

Here, I am suddenly responsible for the actual GERMINATION process! It's like a retro highschool biology project, but instead of fruit flies it's tiny little seeds.

So, we went to the aforementioned gardening center and we stood with all of the other Norwegians, who, by the way, KNEW they had to get the seeds planted, at the latest, THIS weekend. We didn't know that. We just got lucky. I felt like a gardening fraud. But we managed to pick the following seeds for our little garden:



If you can't read the tiny print and if you dont read Norwegian, we bought yellow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenos, tomatillos (which I was SHOCKED to even SEE in Norway!), basil, spinach and chives!

So, I had to buy some mini greenhouses and you have to fill them almost to the top and put your seeds in:



Look how TINY they are!!



Then you have to cover them with a light top layer of soil and water them:



Then you put their little lids on and put them in a dark, warm place for 7 to 10 days and wait for the science magic to begin! We put them in the laundry room:



So, I have to be a bit honest here. It feels kind of like a 3rd grade science fair project, except there are no 3rd graders in this house.

But, I admit it, I am REALLY excited! I mean, if I can actually GROW something, from a SEED, I will be so PROUD!!!!!

So, dear friends, we are in this together.

Do you think the laundry room science fair project stands a chance?? And if so, will the tomatoes taste like fabric softener?

So many things to look forward to!

Artichoke Revelation

Seriously, the Romans are very proud of their artichokes, and we just happened to be there during the peak of artichoke season! Artichokes were everywhere, and the Romans have figured out every possible way of preparing them!

I will go ahead and admit that I have limited artichoke knowledge. I grew up in Texas eating them steamed, dipped in a garlic, mayonaise, lemon juice and melted butter concoction. You know the drill, peel off a leaf, dip it and scrape it with your teeth. Get down to the heart and spend at least 20 minutes removing all the artichoke 'fur', and then dip that into the now cold butter mixture and eat it as well.

This has been my tried and true artichoke method and, up until Rome, it has worked for me.

So, the owners of the apartment we rented in Rome are Pietro and Marina. They go out of their way to ensure that their guests experience the BEST of what Rome has to offer, so me being me, I asked about typical Roman food. One thing leads to another, and Marina makes a phone call to Pietro and next thing we know, we have a real live Roman cooking night set up!! I tell them I want to TASTE Rome, so naturally, artichokes are on the menu.

Pietro arrives with his rolling shopping bag full of goodies and proceeds to unload some gorgeous stuffed artichokes:



Pietro had made these before he got to the apartment, so I didn't get to participate in the creation, but I got to drool over them while he told me how he stuffed them, but unfortunatly, I don't remember what he told me, except for parmesean, walnuts and some other delicious things:



I mentioned in passing that I would love to learn how to make the fried artichokes I had been seeing around Rome, so Pietro marched us out of the apartment to the fruit and vegetable market across the street where we found these:



I just love the way artichokes look, but apparantly, that is NOT how they come! Pietro said something in Italian (of course) to the adorable little man who worked there and he disappeared into the back and came back with this:



Isn't he so cute?? I think he didn't know what to say when I started snapping away with my camera, but he was so sweet and nodded enthusiastically when I kept saying 'Grazie, Grazie'.

Another thing I learned, embarassing I know, is that artichokes do NOT grow from trees. They grow up from the ground on large stalks! I didn't REALLY think they grew on trees, but honestly, I didn't know cause I have never given it much thought.

So, here was our chosen specimen:



As mentioned earlier, I have never done anything more than minor trimming and steaming of an artichoke. Pietro, however, took artichoke preparation to a whole different level. His hands were moving so fast, he cleaned that artichoke like noone's business. From what I could tell from the blur of hands and knife before me, he chopped off all the stems and stalk:



Next, he pulled off the majority of the outer leaves:



Then he chopped off its top, like so:



Next, he peeled the stem:



Finally he quartered it, and with a flick of his wrist, removed all the pesky artichoke fur from the heart:



So, that's it! Now we all can EFFORTLESSLY clean artichokes!
Then it was back to the kitchen, where we made a simple batter for the artichokes. Tipo OO flour, olive oil and water:



Simple.
Heat up some oil in a wok or large pan, and dip the artichoke quarters in the batter:



Then put them in the oil and fry them until they are nice and golden, like so:



Needless to say, we gobbled these up! Perfect dipped in a garlickly aioli or just eaten plain with a squeeze of lemon and sea salt!

I had so many artichokes, prepared so many different ways that night, it was a REVELATION.

Sitting there in Rome with my husband and sister and new friends, Pietro and Marina, drinking good Sicilian red wine and eating good Roman food, in that moment, life was perfect and I could not have been more content!

Mirabilia Urbis Romae ("Marvels of the City of Rome")

Well, we just returned from a week in the Eternal City, and after having been there, I can now fully understand the name. A few years ago we took a road trip through Europe and our itinerary included some bits of Northern Italy, specifically, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Modena and Turin.

My mistake was thinking that Rome would be like these places, just bigger.

Italy is a truly fascinating place, but Rome...Rome is in a league of its own.

My first impression was while looking out the airplane window upon approach. The Mediterranean sea was sparkling and everything was so GREEN, a nice change from the dark and snowy Oslo morning I had left a few hours earlier. My sister flew over from Texas and we all met at the airport and thus began our Roman Holiday!

So, we have all heard of the Colosseum. The Roman Forum. The Palantine Hill. The Vatican. The Dome of St. Peter. The Pantheon.

Let me assure you, hearing about them and seeing them in person are two completely different things.

It started with the apartment we had rented for the week. A hot tip for you: it is cheaper to rent an apartment than it is to stay in a hotel! Rome is NOT cheap! We got ours on vrbo.com!

So, we arrive at the apartment which is supposed to be 'near' the Colosseum. When they say 'near', who knows what that really means, in our case, we walked out onto our huge terrace and this is what 'near' meant:



Can you believe that view??

Our jaws hit the floor! The Colosseum was about 1000 meters away!

THE Colosseum!

In the distance, St. Peters Basilica. It was overwhelming. Directly in front of us, maybe 250 meters aways, a place called the Basilica of San Clemente. A church from the 1600's which sits on top of another church from the 4th century, which sits on top of a Mithraic temple from the first century. All of these layers have been excavated and you can work your way down through the centuries. Amazing. To the immediate left, the oldest monastery in Rome:



We sat down outside and drank our Sicilian red wine and absorbed the history surrounding us.

There is so much I could say on Rome, but I really just don't know where to begin. I have about 400 pictures, but there is no way to put them all here. Even if I could, they would be difficult to describe because so much of my experience of Rome was FEELING. Being overwhelmed. Being in AWE. All of this EXPOSED and VISIBLE history makes the mind and senses of this visually stimulated girl go CRAZY. Seeing stuff like this:




and this:



How is this stuff still standing?? Imagine it white and gleaming. A thriving society, so advanced and technically minded. Who could have even imagined that the Roman Empire could EVER NOT be the glorious center of the world?? I see things like this and I am perplexed. With these kind of structures and with that kind of society, how in the WORLD did the Dark Ages ever occur? It is mind boggling.

But this was what amazed me the most:



Those are just RUINS lying around!! Everywhere! Like tree branches or trash in any other city! Why don't they pick them up?? It just seems wrong to let chunks of thousand year old pillars lay about, doesn't it???

Simply unbelievable.

Ravished by Ravioli!

Homemade pasta continues its reign in my kitchen with no signs of relinquishing its new found power. I would like to be clear that the power pasta has in my home is really an illusion, as I am the ONLY queen of my kitchen, but I am content to let it rule along side me, at least for a time.
So, I was talking to my brilliant geologist friend Cassie, and after having seen the previous post on pasta, she asked if I knew how to make ravioli. Well, one thing led to another and suddenly we had a date for Saturday night to have a ravioli making evening.

Ravioli is one of those things that seems alot more intimidating than it actually is. You should know by now that I am not a fancy pants chef with a fancy pants kitchen and fancy pants accessories. I loathe watching 'chefs' who cook things that make the average person feel like they could NEVER recreate what they are making.

Food brings me joy. Finding inventive ways of preparing and creating foods makes me GIDDY.

So, that being said, you don't need a ravioli ATTACHMENT to make gorgeous ravioli. You don't need a ravioli FORM to make those tasty filled pillows of goodness.

All you need is a 2 dollar pair of crafting scissors from Hobby Lobby.

YES! CRAFTING SCISSORS. You heard it here first on the beautiful diabetic.

Let me show you just how easy making awesome looking ravioli can be! I promise you will be amazed.

So, Cassie and I decided on making two types of ravioli. One stuffed with your basic cheese mixture and the other stuffed with homemade spicy Italian sausage and mozzarella. To make the cheese stuffing, simply mix together ricotta cheese, fresh grated parmesean, fresh basil, oregano, sea salt and cracked pepper.

I try to keep things on the healthy side here on my blog, so for the Italian sausage, take a lean pork chop, trim the fat, throw it in a food processor and pulse it until it is totally mutilated.

I am all for anything that makes creating good food easier, I am not going to hand mix my Italian sausage seasonings, especially when Penzey's spices has already done it for me:



If you go to their website, you will be amazed and will end up ordering stuff. Great quality, great prices, great combinations! Check it out!

So, put the pork in a bowl, add some crushed red pepper and a tablespoon or so of the Penzey's spice mix. Use your hands to mix it up and fry it up with a little bit of olive oil, and set it to the side to cool, when it is cool add some shredded mozzarella and any leftover ricotta.

Once you have your chosen fillings ready to go, make your pasta dough. Divide it into 4 balls and roll them out into long sheets.
Take one of your pasta sheets and lay it flat on the counter top. I like to start with the cheese filling, so any of the left overs we can put into the meat mixture to give it a little moistness. So, take about a heaping teaspoon of the cheese filling and drop it on the pasta sheet, I can't really explain it well, so here is a visual:



You get the idea? Kind of make them caddy cornered to each other. Remember that you are going to need enough room between each one to cut it into ravioli!

When you have your cheese all spooned out, take another sheet of the pasta and gently lay it over the other:



Ok, so now, gently press the dough around your lumps of cheese. You want to the two sheets of dough to touch in as many places as possible. This will make your cutting easier! So, it should now look like this:



Ok. Time to grab the aforementioned crafting scissors!!! This is the fun part, if you can make a scrapbook, you can make ravioli! If you are unsure what kind of scissors I am talking about, it's these kind:



Any scissor that makes those crazy patterns will do. I have found that when you start cutting the dough, the shaped FLAT edges of the crafting scissors will actually SEAL the ravioli as you cut AND will give you cool edges!! So, pick up an end of the dough and start cutting out your ravioli!



No need to be perfect, just get one cut out and then trim the edges:



And suddenly, you have perfect ravioli:



Amazing, huh??

CRAFTING SCISSORS!!!!

Just continue cutting and shaping and then repeat the whole process with your sausage and mozzarella mixture!

For the sauces, Cassie and I decided on a basic marinara sauce for the cheese ravioli and a low fat (aka totally fake and not authentic) alfredo sauce for the sausage ravioli, which is basically a dressed up bechemel sauce.

Now, bring a pot of water to a boil. I should mention that you need to give your craft scissor ravioli a once over and look for any oozers. An oozer is a ravioli who has an unsealed edge. If you don't squeeze these back together, your filling will OOZE out into the boiling water. Once the oozer check is complete, gently put your raviolis in the water:



They will not take long to cook. Basically, when they float to the top, let them cook for about 1 minute longer and then remove them with a slotted spoon.

For the cheese ravioli, top it with some marinara:



For the sausage ravioli, a little of the faux alfredo:



So, now for the all important taste test. The cheese ravioli was awesome! The combination of the marinara and the ricotta was really perfect:



Next we tried the spicy Italian sausage and mozzarella. I really was enjoying it, but then Cassie announced that it reminded her of sausage and biscuits:




Not exactly the review I was looking for, but I had to agree a little with her. There was a distinct similarity to what I was eating now and what I had eaten at Cracker Barrel on several occasions in the past.

So I think we all learned a valuable lesson here: Don't use a flour based sauce and try to sneak it over on people as a proper alfredo sauce! Just splurge and use butter and cream.

Alas, our ravioli journey has come to its end, with overall GREAT results!

And to think you thought your crafting scissors were only good for paper!!