Eggnog Pound Cake, Version Two

This cake is wonderful, even if the photo is not so much. It's fluffy with a little crunch from the almonds around the outside. The eggnog taste isn't too in your face. Also, it's cooked in a bundt pan which is always fun and exciting. The recipe is here. If nothing else, the first cake-tastrophe led me to find this new recipe, which I like even more.

one of those update blogs

I haven't blogged in ages. It's not just this I've been neglecting... it took me three months to finish a book, I'm reading comics from September, and I just uploaded a few Halloween photos to Flickr. But, I have still been cooking a bit - it's just been quite hectic here. Since I last posted a blog, I applied to graduate school, and I've nearly finished up by two classes (only a statistics project and final left). My Christmas shopping is done, and my packages are mailed to their appropriate destinatitons. Cards are out, tree is up... I've been baking...

Okay, well clearly the first baking did not come out as planned. I was making an eggnog pound cake recipe that I found in Southern Living last year. It's actually a delicious cake. Last year I made it at Travis's parents house, and it was delicious. But, it turns out my loaf pan was too small. I smelled something burning while watching Walking Dead (which is sort of funny, like 4D TV if you've seen the finale), and when I went to check on the cake, it had risen at least 5 inches above the top of the pan.

Cake was oozing EVERYWHERE... it was in giant stalactite looking blobs on the bottom of the oven... such a mess. I couldn't finish it, even after I fished out the blobs, the burning from the oven floor kept making my smoke alarm go off. So, the picture you see above is after it settled again, with a few pieces missing from the done side where I decided to give it just a little taste.

More successfully, I made this for dinner one night. I used a frozen shrimp scampi to make some shrimp and grits for myself. It was actually pretty tasty.. I used some parmesan cheese grated into the grits as well. With it is braised bacon cabbage, which was also quite delicious. I actually finished up the leftovers of that tonight.

These pumpkin pancakes are soooo good, I still have a few in the freezer. The recipe is from Martha Stewart.

And finally, I made this lovely roasted chicken and butternut squash soup back before Thanksgiving. Honestly, I think I should've just eaten the roasted chicken and squash separately. I cut up a butternut squash (not an easy feat) and roasted it on a cookie sheet with some oil and chicken thighs. I ate quite a bit of it off of that pan before I managed to get it in the soup. If I can bring myself to cut up another butternut squash, I will definitely roast it that way again. The soup was okay, but for some reason I never like soup when I make it. I think I must be doing something wrong.

Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Onions, and Garlic

I was so excited to finally cook a proper dinner that I thought I wouldn't be able to decide what to make. But, I have been craving roast chicken recently, and autumn is the perfect time of year for lovely roast dinners. There was a one pan chicken dinner in Everyday Food a few months ago would do nicely.

I had a whole chicken cut up in the freezer, so I thawed that out. Put it in a pan with one cut up red onion (in big pieces, like eighths), a quartered lemon, about a pound of halved or quartered (depending on their size) white new potatoes, six springs of thyme, and a head of garlic broken up into cloves but not peeled. Drizzle with 3/4 cup olive oil and 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (whisked together). Salt and pepper, then roast for 50 minutes.

The recipe called to roast it 450, but that was too high for my oven. I ended up around 375. I suppose it actually could have been 450 in real temperature - I suspect that my oven runs hot, but I keep forgetting to check it. Also, my roasting pan was a little too big. I needed 12x16 but only had a bit smaller and a bit larger than that. I settled on the larger one, but some stuff on the edges burned. I think it was too exposed to the heat.

Overall, this was really great. The potatoes (especially the ones that burned a little on the outside actually) were delicious - soft and creamy in the middle and crispy on the outside. The chicken was juicy, and the garlic was sooo good. I actually just ate a couple of cloves of it, but I love roasted garlic. It was good to squeeze out the cloves from the peel and spread it on some bread.

I also had made Paula Deen's marinated tomatoes, which are really easy and tasty. I make them quite a lot actually, they're really good for company because you can do them early in the day and just put them out to get to room temperature.

A Decline in Food Adventures

Recently, I decided to go back to school. So, this fall I decreased my work schedule, signed up for two classes at Santa Monica College, and started focusing on studying for the GRE and preparing the various essays, etc. that are required for the UCLA graduate admission application. All of this has lead to a sad decline in cooking here recently.

That's not to say I don't cook at all, just that I've been incredibly lazy about it. For example, tonight we had macaroni and cheese (the kraft gourmet kind) and some pre-cut and pre-seasoned fresh brussel sprouts (that were actually pretty tasty).

However, that's not to say I haven't had any food adventures at all. And hopefully, after I take the GRE this week I'll have a bit more time again. Anyway, here is a summary:

This is some ice cream Travis and I got at the new Santa Monica food truck lot. His is cake donut flavored (it tasted exactly like a cake donut, oddly enough) and mine is a Salty Scotty - it's a lightly salted butterscotch. If you've ever had a salted caramel (which is sooo good, if you haven't), it tasted like that but in ice cream form.

I really wanted to bake cookies, but without the time, I just grabbed a thing of refrigerated cookie dough. It is clear to me now that I should've used a larger pan.

Had these great shrimp and chips with remoulade sauce from the Shrimp Pimp truck a few weeks ago. So good!

Saw an enormous freaking pumpkin at the LA County Fair!

And we also shared a giant turkey leg. There are pictures of me eating too, but I look sort of demonic, like I might eat the person taking the picture next or something.

Rib-Eye Steaks with Garlic and Rosemary

I think I mentioned recently how much I love the Stinking Rose Restaurant Cookbook. This weekend I decided to try to recreate the ribeye, which Travis and I have had at the restaurant several times. It was absolutely the best steak I have ever cooked. I made it with some cauliflower that I roasted with olive oil, sea salt, and garlic, and then I took some leftover french bread and made garlic bread from it so that Travis would have something to eat besides steak, bless his veggie-phobic heart.

For the steaks, you will need:

2 large cloves garlic, halved

4 (10 ounce) rib eye steaks (I used two and halved the rosemary but not the garlic. What can I say? I like garlic!)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 springs rosemary

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons butter

I also didn't halve the wine/butter, I just made a bit extra sauce. You also need a cast iron skillet. I guess you could use a different kind of skillet, but why would you?

1. Rub the cut edge of 1 garlic half around your skillet.

2. Set the skillet over medium heat. Lightly sprinkle the steaks with salt and pepper on both sides and add steaks to the skillet. Place all the garlic and a sprig of rosemary on one side of the skillet to add a hint of flavor. (I had to do the steaks in two batches because they wouldn't both fit in my skillet, so I used one garlic clove and one rosemary sprig in each batch).

3. Cook steaks on first side for 3-4 minutes, then turn and cook another 6-7 minutes for medium-rare (for a 1 1/2 inch steak). Once rosemary and garlic begin to brown, remove them from the pan.

4. Transfer steaks to a warmed plate. Add wine and butter to the skillet, stirring to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the mixture starts to bubble, remove from the heat and drizzle over the top of the steaks. Serve immediately.

Best. Hot Dog. Ever.

Okay, so maybe I could just be thinking best hot dog ever in the heat of the moment, but it was a really good hot dog. It's Tuesday. I've been feeling sort of sick, so I was super drowsy (in spite of the insanely strong coffee that I had at breakfast). But it was food truck day! I couldn't decide what to get, but I settled on something simple: The Greasy Wiener truck. I will now list the amazing things about this hot dog:

1. it is deep fried

2. it is wrapped in bacon

3. with this enormous thing of fries, it cost $6. I could barely eat all the fries.

I've also had the Iggys from Greasy Wiener (mini burgers on Hawaiian rolls) and they're pretty great as well. So, all in all, it was a good day.

Cappuccino Muffins

I was looking for a new muffin recipe to try, since I generally make chocolate chip or lemon poppyseed, and I found these! It's a Cappuccino Chocolate Muffin - you can find the recipe here.

They're really delicious, and they're supposed to freeze well too, which is nice. The coffee flavor isn't too strong, and it's soooo good with the chocolate chips. I really can't wait to have these for breakfast at work this week. I recommend heating in the microwave for a few seconds to get the chocolate to melt some.