Saturday, November 21, 2009

Trainwreck

From this......

To this.

OMG, it was a big f-ing trainwreck.  I managed to get it all done, but that stupid chocolate cake with the peanut butter frosting almost did me in.  Seriously.

You saw those perfectly baked cake layers in the last post.  All good.  So I assembled the thing.  Carefully spread my peanut butter frosting on each layer, aligned them perfectly and did a "crumb coat" over it all.  I then placed it in the refrigerator (needing to move just about everything out of it to make room - can you say "spoiled milk"?) and left it there for 30 minutes.  Took it out, frosted it and did the chocolate glaze thing on top.  It looked gorgeous and perfect.

Twenty minutes later?  Not so much.  It apparently went south (or east or west, whatever).  The layers slid all over the place and the frosting in the middle of the cake layers oozed out in a bulge that reminded me of what it looks like when you put on waist-high pantyhose.  This was not pretty.

And it was 11pm.  I SO did not want to deal with this.  So I did what any rational person would do and I scraped all of the frosting and the glaze off of the g-d cake.  (My garbage disposal must have thought that it had died and gone to heaven).  And then I reassembled the whole thing, gave it another crumb coat and stuck it in the refrigerator.  Overnight.

Flash forward to this morning.  I gave up going to the gym and my favorite step class to deal with this damn cake.  And you can guess what happened - I pulled it out of the refrigerator, it was well-chilled, the crumb coat was well-set and....THE DAMN THING WAS STILL CROOKED.  It looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  Crap, crap, crap.

I tried pushing the layers into place.  Nope, they were cold enough that it wasn't an option.  So I decided to fix it with frosting.

But speaking of frosting, the recipe in the previous post DID NOT WORK.  It tasted good, but it didn't spread well and it had these weird pockets of bubbles in it.  Don't use it.  I went back to my favorite food guru (that would be Ina Garten) and made a batch of her peanut butter frosting.  Much, much better.  And, it managed to hide all of my cake-making mistakes.

INA'S PEANUT BUTTER FROSTING
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

Place first 5 ingredients in an electric mixer and beat until well-combined and smooth and fluffy.  Add cream and beat on high speed until smooth.

So I am beat and I am tired and I never, ever want to smell peanut butter again.  Or encounter cream cheese frosting. Yuck.  Please, oh please can I have some guacamole?

But I managed to get it all done.  Here are my crappy iPhone photos to prove it....

         Finished and waiting for Henry to figure out
          how in the hell we are going to transport
                          these creations




                  Got it there!  (Thanks, Henry)



             Oh, and I ROCKED the cupcakes! 






I wanna live in a vintage movie with fairies...

Hello everybody! How was your saturday, good? I really hope so! Mine was really nice, and I'm really happy because my mum came today from Algeciras to Barcelona just for seeing me! She'll stay here until thursday!!

But let's explain the day in parts... why I want to live in a vintage movie? Easy: Laia and I went today to les Encants' market... and it was awesome! There were lot of vintage things, I wish I had more money to spend there! I bought a vintage brooche, so cool; a vintage bag that never had been used and a watch (the watch is not vintage but is cool anyway!. And everything was so cheap!!


 
The bag is ultracute!
 
Me!

Then I went to Tamar's shop and I had lunch with Gerard and her; and at 5 o'clock I went to the airpot just for meeting my mum and her boyfriend, who came from Tarragona... After that, we went to her hotel, at Plaza EspaƱa... look what a gorgeous sights from her room!


We had dinner in the city center and I took the to El Bosc de las Fades, one of the coolets places at Barcelona... here's where you find the sense about the fairies...



 
This gorgeous woman is my mum!


I love her so much and I'm so happy that she comes... yaw!


My cosmopolitan!


This place is really cute!


And yes, here's the fairy!!

Tomorrow we're visiting some cool places, I'll make lots of pictures!

And by the way, my outfit of today:


 
Coat - Green Coast
Sweater - Blanco
Skirt - Vintage
Boots - Vintage
Tights - Calzedonia
Bag - Swimmer
Beret - Primark
Red Bow - Handmade
Have a wonderful sunday!

Ham and Egg Fried Rice

Fried rice is usually thought of in the Western world as simply being an accompaniment to a main meal. The reality is, however, that in many Asian countries, fried rice with certain additives represents the entire content of the meal. This delicious recipe for ham and egg fried rice can either therefore be used in smaller quantities as a meal accompaniment or very successfully enjoyed as a meal in itself for two people.

Ingredients

6oz basmati or long grain rice
2 medium free range, organic eggs
4 rashers of bacon
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp corn oil for frying
A little butter

Method

The first step is to cook the rice by boiling it. Put the rice in to a very fine sieve and wash it thoroughly under running cold water. Put it in to a pan of boiling, salted water and simmer for around twelve minutes. Drain it well through the same sieve, cover it and set it aside to cool.

Break the eggs in to a bowl and whisk with a fork until they begin to froth. Melt a little butter in a small, non-stick frying pan and add the egg mixture. Turn up the heat to medium to high and gently move the egg mixture from around the edge of the pan towards the centre with a plastic spatula until the eggs begin to set. When the eggs are almost completely set, turn the omelette over for the top to finish cooking. We are not making the omelette to eat as an omelette so it is important that all the egg mixture is fully cooked. Remove the omelette from the pan on to a plate, cover and leave it to cool.

The rashers of bacon should be grilled under a medium grill until cooked and then added to the plate with the omelette.

When the omelette is cold, carefully roll it up as tightly as you can in to a cylindrical shape and then slice it as finely as possible. This will produce long, narrow strands of cooked egg. Place the bacon rashers one on top of the other and slice equally finely.

Bring a wok up to a very high heat before adding the corn oil. Allow the oil to heat up before adding the cold rice and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the egg, bacon and soy sauce and fry for about another minute for everything to heat through.

Season to taste (though be careful, as a lot of salt will be obtained from the bacon and soy sauce) and serve immediately.

Do You Have a Proper Chinese Wok?

A Chinese wok is a fantastic addition to the appliance range in any kitchen. A wok is essential in order to cook Chinese and other Asian style food at its very best. Here are a couple of excellent deals on woks currently available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk for you to consider.



Relevant Associated Links for your Further Information

How to Make Biryani

Egg Fried Rice Recipe

The Easiest Way to Cook Basmati Rice

Easy Fried Rice and Chicken Chow Mein Recipes

Easy Thai Fried Rice

We have a donut problem.

I'll admit to a guilty pleasure: donuts. Though, donuts are [typically] an indulgence on a very rare occassion. ....Until about 3 weeks ago.

Three weeks ago, husband came home from Saturday morning errands with about 3 donuts. Between the 2 of us, they were consumed as breakfast. Eaten, enjoyed, and done with. Until the following Saturday when he did the same thing! We stopped for gas and as I was pumping gas, he went in to the gas station and emerged laden with 4 donuts. Ugh. Those lasted Saturday AND Sunday morning. TWO days of poor breakfast choices! Two WEEKENDS of poor breakfast choices. Shame!

Then today I was out running morning errands and I went into the gas station as my gas was pumping and bought 3 donuts. I walk in the door and husband had stopped by the donut shop and picked up 5 donuts, one of which he'd already consumed. And in the midst of blogging, another one hits the dust (him, not me). I'm yet to indulge and I'm thinking I'll hold off in hopes that husband goes to town on the darn things! (Husband is one of those people who can eat what they want, all that they want, and as often as they want without any adverse effects such as.......WEIGHT GAIN. Terd.).


Bad, bad, BAD!!!!!

Husband and I just pow-wowed and decided this habit has GOT to go. While donuts are not the worst of all evils they are a COMPLETE waste of calories and fat...and contain NO nutritional value whatsoever. At all! They fall far into the "20%" of my 80-20 guidelines! I vow to you, blog world, to cut the donut habit we have formed. Back to the good'ole days of the very occasional guilty pleasure.

ANYWAYS... ::eye roll at self::

A patient brought me some fresh home-grown turnips yesterday and I haven't a CLUE what to do with them. For the record, I am not a fan of anything "pickled" (okra, beets, etc.).

Any ideas on how to deliciously indulge in my new vegetable?

I tried Kay's Naturals gluten-free Apple Cinnamon cereal this morning and it was very good! It held it's crunch really well in milk, to my pleasant surprise. However, I was hungry 2 hours after I had breakfast. I was surprised at this because of the high protein content. I'll give it another shot for breakfast and see it it wasn't a fluke. Hopefully, because it was really good!!!

And on a completely unrelated topic...a debate, if you will.
Question: If someone is a "vegetarian" and they consume meat occasionally, are they still a vegetarian or are they a Flexitarian?

I guess I don't "get" labels. I think that there's a lot of benefits of both meat-containing and meat-free diets. Personally, I aim to consume at least 1 if not 2 meat-free meals a day. I eat red meat on a very rare occasion, not only because I don't prefer it, but also because of the high saturated fat content and the assocation between red meat intake and cancer, such as colon and breast cancers. Seafood, however, I could never give up.

I also do think it's somewhat hypocritical to be a vegetarian for reasons such as animal rights and then to consume eggs and milk that are not organic or from free-range animals. It's very true that conditions for chickens, hens, and cows are cruel and inhumane.

Thoughts on this?
I ask because of this post.

AWESOME, AWESOME Giveaways!!!

Michelle of Lucky Taste Buds is giving away a Soda Stream Machine!! She's also giving away 2 jars of Krema peanut butter!

Live, Love, Eat, and Play is giving away Zevia!

Heather of Health, Happiness, and Hope is giving away POM, coupons, and Odwalla bars!

And just for fun...Lily in a tutu


Here she is a few months ago...she's grown so much!!!
She only snores more and eats more now!




We're off to the dog park...have a wonderful Saturday!

Food Tip of the Day - Saturday, November 21st, 2009: Sweet Potato Recipes for Thanksgiving

With only five days remaining before Thanksgiving 2009, many Americans will be turning their thoughts very seriously to precisely what food they are going to be serving up to their families on the big day. Sweet potatoes are of course a very popular ingredient to be incorporated in the Thanksgiving menu, so below is a link to a site which focuses on a wide variety of different and healthy ways to cook sweet potatoes, either at Thanksgiving or any other time of the year.

Healthy Sweet Potato Recipes

Maen di koen

21 november 2009, sabtu

Hari ini ga ada tujuan kemana2 n mobil juga dipake ma suami, jadi ama anak2 pergi ke koen, taman pake sepeda. Mei bawa sepeda nya sendiri, gw bonceng Xiang di depan. Koennya ga begitu jauh dari rumah, paling 10 menitan bersepeda nyantei.

Tempatnya bagus, banyak alat bermainnya. Lumayan juga puas main disitu, mpe 1 jam-an deh. Pulangnya mampir supermarket..biasa dah, belanja lagiii..