Deep Freeze

We have just acquired a deep freeze to make meals ahead of the Baby T-Rex coming to join our foodie family. If you have any great recipes or ideas for meals that freeze well please send them our way. You can leave them in the comment section for all to enjoy or email me!

Thanks!

Your resident foodie

Molten Chocolate Lava Goodness

One of the hottest (literally...because it is served warm) desserts around right now are the molten chocolate lava cakes available at numerous restaurants. I highly encourage you to avoid the cakes served at chains because in the case of the lava cake they are pre-made, packaged, and nuked cakes that do not resemble the warm, flow of cake that you can make with relative ease in your own home.

If you have been living under a rock and have no idea what I refer to when I mention Molten Chocolate Lava cakes you are truly missing out...if you love chocolate. The cakes are personal to two person sized, unless you are Matt's sister McKay who can polish off two or three of the larger ones on her own. The cake is a relatively light, soft chocolate cake that, when cooked properly, has a decent crust to offer a pinch of resistance before your fork cuts into the cake. Once you have forged that teeny bit of resistance you will find nothing for your fork to cut through because the recipe is designed to "separate" itself into baked cake and warm, gooey center. The center is thick and fudgy in consistency and has a decent overload of chocolate flavor. It is best served hot (so the middle stays warm and flows) and with your choice of sauces (we prefer raspberry), or as shown below with fudge ripple ice cream and fresh raspberries.

Recipe:

Butter your baking dishes (either 3/4 cup souffle dishes or I prefer a regular muffin tin).

Stir 14 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped (or just use chocolate chips), 1 1/4 cups of unsalted butter in a saucepan over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Cool slightly.

Whisk 6 large eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract to blend. Whisk in 3 cups of powdered sugar until blended. Add the chocolate mixture and 1 cup of AP flour.

Fill dishes to top with batter.

Bake at 425 until the batter has risen above the dish, the top edges are dark brown and the center is soft and runny. For souffle dishes that is 18 minutes for cold batter or 15 minutes for room temperature batter. For the muffin tins I usually start checking them at 10 and it will take about 12 minutes.

Run knife to loosen the edges and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serve as elegantly (or not...McKay probably couldn't wait) as you wish...you can always simply dust with powdered sugar and serve with a mint leaf.

The batter can be made up to 1 day ahead and stored in the fridge.

Any leftovers you have make sure to refrigerate and reheat (we usually nuke them chain restaurant style).

Enjoy!

Elk!

Matt is the typical guy's guy who likes to work on cars, go hunting and fishing, and drink beer. I especially enjoy the second listing because it means that I get tons of fresh game and fish whenever he does go out. I really like when they go to the gulf to go fishing because even if he is not always successful at fishing he brings me home gulf shrimp (which I love). Matt and his dad (and more recently his brother and brother-in-law) have been hunting a lot in the area of their house. Not long ago, in addition to the deer they took down, they took down an elk as well. Apparently there are people in the area who have wild game as pets and when some of them escape they join the herds of deer.

Mattie's family always takes their food to Slovacek's in Snook for processing. They always do a good job breaking down the meat into steaks, back straps, roasts, sausage, and ground meat. They also try to tenderize the tougher pieces of meat which leads me to my post today.

We usually eat more on the Mediterranean/Italian spectrum of things, but occasionally enjoy a good old country meal. So we decided to do just that with wedge salad, chicken fried elk, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

Wedge Salad:

Cut an iceberg lettuce head into wedges. I personally think that unless this is your meal fourths is too big...I try to go for sixths to eights.

Top with diced onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, crumbled bacon, and either feta or blue cheese.

Most wedge salads come with a creamy dressing (I usually splurge and make ranch), but we have had it with vinaigrette too and it is still delicious.

Serve with copious amounts of cracked black pepper, a fork, and a knife.

I usually prefer romaine or green leaf salads, but the iceberg is perfect for this salad. It acts as a "boat" for serving the other vegetables that have been covered in the creamy dressing and cheese. Additionally, the soft cheese and tomatoes contrast nicely with the crisp cucumber and lettuce.

The chicken fried elk was fairly easy to make.

Take your cut of meat (if you are unsure of what cut of meat to use, look for something that is already tenderized in the store...it looks like it has lots of wholes in it) and season it with salt and pepper.

I prefer to double dredge my frying meats so dip that sucker in flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), an egg and milk wash, then flour again. It makes the meat, once fried, extra crispy.

Heat an inch or two of oil in a frying pan, once hot gently place the floured meat in the pan. It is important that your oil is sufficiently hot for a number of reasons. I learned from Rachel Ray that the easiest way is to dip a wooded spoon into the oil, if bubbles appear it is hot enough. Make sure that it is hot because you will eliminate sogginess and a good golden crust will help from too much fat/oil entering into the meat. Once golden brown on both sides you can begin checking for doneness. This is obviously more important with chicken than it is with red meat, but you want a good amount of doneness with this too. Let the meat drain on a paper towel to soak up extra oil when done.

Serve with mashed potatoes, cream gravy, and green beans (we like to jazz up canned green beans with onions, mushrooms, and garlic powder). Enjoy!