Valentine's Day 2016

Last year, Dave and I spent Valentine's Day on a cruise with my family. This year, we are not on a boat – but that's no reason not to spend it with my family! Usually Grace or I makes family dinner; for this special occasion, Dave and Stephen took over. Here are the chefs at work:

The results: a feast of homemade paella and roasted asparagus! Dave has been trying variations on his paella for a long time now. He has discovered that the cast iron skillet gives the best results: you'll want to stir the rice some as it cooks, so that it cooks evenly; but towards the end, refrain from stirring so that a nice saccarat forms on the bottom. We all agreed that this was his best version yet!

To make it extra romantic, we broke out our wedding china and candlesticks! A and M were not particularly impressed, I don't think. Haha.

I'd been tempted all week by the recipes for chocolate desserts that I'd seen posted online. When I saw a recipe for Intense Chocolate Mousse Cake, I knew what I wanted for Valentine's dessert! Unfortunately, Dave does not know how to make a cake. Solution: I'd just have to make it myself! It was my first time baking a dessert in a water bath.

The dessert looks like a flourless chocolate cake (it is indeed flourless), but is not as dense in texture. I do like to make a classic chocolate mousse, but this cake recipe is nice because the top crackly crust gives it a contrasting texture to the inside.

I would definitely make it again! And the water bath was not as messy/intimidating as I thought it would be. I recommend.

Finally: Dave also bought me gifts! He comparison shopped at the local grocery stores, and found the best deal on flowers...that's my guy! Plus a sweet treat. I couldn't ask for more.

patty cake

A. turns 3 next week, while Dave and I are out of town. We're having an early mini-party tomorrow to celebrate. The special occasion inspired me to bake a cake! It's been a long time since I attempted a cake – and it showed. I tried to make my mom's sponge biscuit cake recipe, which is designed to be easily scaled up or down. The problem is that I scaled down the eggs, but forgot to change the proportions of the rest of the ingredients! Oops. I only realized this when the cake was halfway done baking, so I anxiously hovered over the oven...and it turned out fine. I clearly have no idea when precision is of the utmost importance and when a recipe is pretty flexible. Aren't people always talking about how everything has to be so precise with baked goods? Confused.

At any rate, baking is still an astounding thing. I can't believe that we start off with this:

And end up with this! Even when you get the recipe all wrong!

 
 The "frosting" is just whipped cream with lemon zest:

I filled the inside with strawberries:

Popped the top back on:

And decorated with raspberries:

I initially thought of doing a capital A, but the effect was a little too Scarlet Letter. I hope she likes it!

some things are better store-bought

In the spirit of #pinterestfail, I share here my sad attempt at recreating smitten kitchen's Pretzel Parker House rolls. Sounds so good, right? I LOVE soft pretzels. And this picture made it so tempting:

I was not about to let the fact that I've never made Parker House rolls or pretzel-anything stop me! I was so determined that I even went to the grocery store and bought pretzel (coarse) salt. Sadly, I think I messed up the yeast, so the dough didn't rise properly, and then blah blah blah, I ended up with this:

HAHAHA! It is also a terrible picture. It wasn't inedible; we managed to "destroy the evidence." But I'm not sure that even if they had turned out perfectly, they would have been worth the effort. Oh well!

more fall fun

One of the things that used to get me down about living in Michigan was the brevity of autumn. We'd have a week of a delightful light chill in the air and pretty foliage, and suddenly there'd be SNOW and WIND and DARKNESS. FOR SIX MORE MONTHS. Returning to the East Coast has made things a bit easier this fall, and I'm trying to make the most of it. Last weekend, Dave's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came to visit our new place in LI. Amie is 4.5 years old, the perfect age to enjoy a trip to White Post Farms.

 We fed the birds.

 Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder

 Eager goats

 And an extremely slobbery camel

This guy had it all figured out.

Look at the adorable little houses!

Dave's parents visited us this weekend, bringing our grand total to eight different guests who've slept under our roof this week (not including us!). We love hosting friends and family, and we finally have the space to do it. One other nice thing about guests: an excuse to cook! Here's a spiced pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese frosting:

It looked good, but I had cut out too much of the sugar from the cake and the frosting. It ended up tasting too much like a muffin! Oh well.