might be a while

It might be a bit before I can post anything new and inspiring. We had our baby girl a week ago and are trying to manage that. I did have two great food experiences in the hospital...

First I learned that a midnight snack of peanut butter and honey graham crackers is AMAZING. Big kudos to Nurse Molly who brought that little bit of protein packed deliciousness into my life.

Second, if you have to order off the menu at Methodist Willowbrook, trust me when I say to go for the chicken fajitas. They were really good and fresh tasting and the tortilla rocked. It was the perfect amount of chewiness and would have been easy to make into a good taco. Top off the meal with their oatmeal cookie. It was the perfect balance of oat/cinnamon/raisin flavor and the consistency was soft with just enough give to make you feel like you are enjoying a nice dessert.

I will get back to better food posts soon!

Urge to Bake

I have recently had a strong urge to bake. I, however, have been unable to do so because of doctor's orders to stay off my feet for another few days to avoid pre-term labor. So I decided to post a few of the wedding cake pictures from the past to hold my urge over.

This was actually for a wedding shower...it is not the prettiest picture, but it is a brownie cut into a circle, topped with chocolate mousse, and surrounded by strawberries...delicious!

This cake was not the prettiest, but easily the heaviest. The bride requested a cheesecake grooms cake. I made half the cheesecake regular and half chocolate. We then doused the entire thing in raspberry sauce, covered it in chocolate ganache, added chocolate shavings, and covered in chocolate covered strawberries. I like the bride and groom strawberries in the middle! This cake was large, rich, and GONE in about 5 minutes once they began to cut the cakes!

This cake was for our friends Crystal and Darren when they got married almost exactly two years ago. They met and fell in love while studying abroad in Italy, so they found it fitting to get married at a vineyard in Austin. They gave me a color sample and asked me to match the icing to the cake and cover it in fruit. The flavor was a hybrid of a spice cake and a red velvet cake with a fruit filling.

This was the first stacked cake I made for my mom when she married my step father. It is a plain white cake with raspberry filling. The sides are made from sheets of white chocolate.

This cake was for my sister--in-law's shower. We actually used the shower to test out the flavors of filling she liked best. We ended up with three different kinds of cakes...raspberry and pineapple filled and Italian cream cake. Her husband came up with the idea for the grooms cake which I agreed to do (and also made my original idea for his cake as well). I made the chocolate raspberry truffle cake for me and for him I made a cake consisting of a layer of brownie, layer of fudge icing, layer of chocolate chip cookie, layer of fudge icing, layer of brownie, all covered in fudge icing. It was also a rich cake that disappeared quite quickly. All in all, because they love desserts and wanted a multitude of them they had 9 brides cakes (normal size round cakes), the chocolate raspberry truffle cake, brownie/cookie/brownie cake, two plates of chocolate chip cookies, and two plates of brownies. It was a tiring, but rewarding affair to remember!

I hope to get a chance to bake some goodies again soon!

Cuban/ Puerto Rican Stir Fry

A few years ago Mattie and I enjoyed a trip to Puerto Vallarta. Much to the surprise of the people at the resort we were staying at we took public transportation to actually go visit the town of Puerto Vallarta. It was a grand little adventure and along the way we found the most amazing Cuban restaurant. This is the us at our table:

So while we enjoyed the balmy breeze and beautiful view, we had some wonderful food. We enjoyed ropa vieja, black beans and rice, delicious crusty bread, and killer mojitos. I really enjoy mojitos in general, but nothing can beat the one I enjoyed along the beach here (until I get to go to Cuba as an educator).

Recently I decided to try my own version of a Cuban/ Puerto Rican concoction by taking leftovers we had and throwing them together into a Caribbean influenced stir fry.

Ingredients:

Saffron/ Yellow rice

Spiced Pork chopped or sliced

Sauteed Onions

Sauteed Bell Peppers

Green Olives (a must)

Black beans

Peas

There is not much spice involved...a bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, but one of the great things about Cuban and Puerto Rican food is that it allows for depth of flavor to come from the ingredients of the dish itself.