Dark Chocolate Cake

I believe that title speaks for itself.

I'll elaborate on my end, though. I went to a friend's house for Bunco on Friday night, and I brought a cake for dessert. I went to one of my very favorite food blogs, Orangette, and got a recipe for Whiskey-Soaked Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake. I highly recommend it. I only used about 1/4 cup of whiskey, and didn't "soak" the cake after it was baked, and it was delicious. Dark and rich without being super sweet. I'm not a huge fan of my bundt pan, because it's got a few too many dips and bumps. They're pretty, but sometimes the cake gets stuck in them and I lose cake (well, I mean, I do EAT it, but the cake loses part of itself). Sad. Powdered sugar makes it all pretty, though.

This cake also goes well with coffee. And makes mornings happier. (Maybe not recommended for breakfast if you use the amount of booze in the original - she does call it boozycake after all. I'm pretty sure all the alcohol baked out of mine.)

Four Ice Creams I Want to Try

I am an indecisive person. I like to take my time, think things through, etc. etc. and it can take forever. I mean, I can usually just pick something and go with it, but it's not my natural way of doing things.

I love ice cream and got an ice cream maker for Christmas. So now I have a decision to make: What ice cream should I try first???

I started looking for recipes to try for breaking in the new toy, and I found far too many choices just by looking at three websites plus one recipe I bookmarked months ago. There's the choice between keeping it simple or going all out and using ingredients that require me to cook and prepare before I even pull out the contraption. I've decided simple is probably better to start with. I believe I have narrowed it down to four choices that I think all look delicious:

Double cookie dough ice cream - Recipe at Annie's Eats - this is the one I had bookmarked, because even though I didn't have an ice cream maker at the time it made me make plans to get one...

Honey ice cream - Recipe at Orangette - I need some better honey anyways (there are some great local ones that are SOOOO much better than the little bear from the grocery store...); what better way to use it than in ice cream?

Vanilla bean ice cream - Tartelette or David Lebovitz - Another excuse to buy a new ingredient; I don't have any vanilla beans on hand and a Penzey's just opened near here that I haven't gone into yet... Plus, the Tartelette version mentions cinnamon ice cream as well. Which I have to try at some point. And Penzey's also has cinnamon.

Salted butter caramel ice cream - Recipe by David Lebovitz - OK, this one isn't as simple as the others, but it sounds Wonderful (yes, with a capital W).

There are many others on the list to try in the future. When strawberries are in season, I'm def making strawberry, for example. I'd love to find a recipe for lavender ice cream, too; a local ice cream shop makes one and it's so good.

We leave for vacation in two days, so that buys me some extra time to think about this... Opinions? 

Sound and Silence

Another day at home, still sick... Not much happening, but I'm listening to Sarah McLachlan's Wintersong, which is my most favorite Christmas album right now.

I was flipping through the December copy of Real Simple, and found this wonderful photo by Nicholas McElroy. You can see it here, about halfway down the page. It just has such a feeling of quiet; he says, "I just couldn't resist jumping out to experience the sense of total silence you get in such a remote location."

Also in Real Simple: This hazelnut ganache tart, which makes me hungry. I LOVE hazelnut + chocolate. Recipe & photo via Real Simple.

Now, this is the type of thing I think I need to eat when I'm not feeling well.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

Mmm, I saw this on Orangette - I think this will become a Sunday lunch sometime soon.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
Adapted slightly (by Molly Wizenberg) from In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite, by Melissa Clark


4 Tbsp. olive oil, plus additional good oil for drizzling
2 large yellow onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. kosher salt, or more to taste
A few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne or Aleppo pepper, or more to taste
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups red lentils, picked through for stones and debris
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
Juice of 1 lemon, or more to taste
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

In a large pot, warm the oil over medium-high heat until hot and shimmering. Add the onions and garlic and cook until golden, about 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, cumin, salt, pepper, and cayenne, and cook for 2 minutes longer. Add the broth, 2 cups water, the lentils, and the carrots. Bring to a simmer, then partially cover the pot and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Continue to cook until the lentils are soft, about 30 minutes. Taste, and add more salt if necessary. Using an immersion or regular blender, puree about half of the soup. It should still be somewhat chunky, not completely smooth. Reheat if necessary, then stir in the lemon juice and cilantro. Serve the soup drizzled with good olive oil and dusted very lightly with cayenne, if desired.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Salsa Makes it Better

It's taken me 5 years (well, to be fair, about 3 yr) to make tacos that my husband actually liked. The problem has been with the ground beef mixture. I started out making them the exact same way my mom does, then revised that, then re-revised that, then made him tacos with plain ground beef (gross), then something else, on and on, until I made this, and he liked it. This post has been just a saved recipe for... I don't know, months. I keep looking it up to make sure I'm making my own tacos the right way, haha. Now I'm finally finishing it.

Brown a package of ground beef (how much? I don't know, a pound? We bought a bunch of beef that my uncle raised, so we have all these little packages of ground beef...)
Add chopped onion (about 1/3-1/2 of a white onion)
Slice 1 clove garlic, add to beef
Chop some oregano (2 small stems?), throw it in
Add salt & pepper
Add red salsa and a little bit of water; cook until water is evaporated

Just add everything to taste. Sometimes I add other stuff; tonight I used a little cumin and 2 cloves of garlic. I'm sure it would be great with homemade salsa, but I just use medium Pace chunky salsa.

Salsa is also the secret to my guacamole. My husband makes better guacamole, but he takes forever and sometimes he just doesn't feel like making it. I just smush up an avocado, add some lime juice (1/2 a lime? if we have fresh), a little garlic salt, green salsa (not too much), and Cholula. Mix it all together, add salsa if needed. Or anything else if needed.

Apparently, tacos also taste better when I actually put them together for him... suspicious, yes?

PS - Costco sells raw tortillas that you cook at home - LOVE.them.