Obviously I am no chef – and in case you were wondering, the potatoes are NOT bad even if those little barnacle things are growing on them. The point of my post is to tell the internet thank you for making it so I can eat. Without it, our meals would be risky, if not non-existent. Just about everything I make comes from AllRecipes.com. That’s my go to. And if any recipe has more than about 4 key ingredients I skip it. The reviews are super helpful to me too.

As for other things I’ve asked the internet, they are the following:

What is Tilapia?

How do I broil? (Good story on this. All along I thought I was broiling when I turned my oven dial to “BROIL” and stuck my food in the dish in my oven, I wasn’t. Turns out the little drawer below the oven which I’ve been using to store my pans is the broiler. You put the food down there. I had no idea!)

“Can I cook frozen fish?”

“Do I have to use chicken broth?”

“What can I use for heavy cream?”

“What is mincing?”

“How to make your own bread crumbs”

“How tell when chicken is done”

“Can I use olive oil instead of vegetable oil?”

“Will you make my dinner?”

So clearly most of my meals have involved chicken, fish and garlic. And frankly olive oil goes in everything (except desserts). Honestly though, I’ve gotten much better. Most of these questions were asked during the first few years of my cooking existence – except for the potato question. Annnnd the broiling one. That one I thought I was doing right until last month.

So no, I’m not a great cook, but thanks to the internet I’m a much better one. And thanks to the internet I haven’t poisoned anyone. So I say all in all, it’s a win!

The first step to any great recipe….great ingredients! Look at all this yummy stuff! Thankfully I had most of the ingredients in the baking section of my pantry (don’t make fun of me) but I did have to purchase the yummy Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate bars and cocoa powder, which I had no problem doing.

Silly me, I got so into the recipe and getting everything just right that I forgot to take any pictures of the mixing process for the cake. But, here they are after putting them in the oven. Mmmmm, looking good!

All finished baking, now time to cool! Make sure you let these cakes cool for at least an hour before turning them out of the pan. I learned the hard way that no matter how thickly you butter and flour the baking pans, a little sticking is going to happen. You can see my new kitchen mural in the background too, more on that later.

Now time for the chocolate buttercream frosting, and yes this was ALL homemade. I melted the delicious Ghirardelli chocolate squares over a double boiler….

…and then combined it with my buttercream mixture to make the most beautiful chocolate buttercream frosting ever

And then once everything was all said and done, I slapped that frosting all over the cakes and voila! Happy Birthday!

I HIGHLY recommend this recipe from Food Network! It was delicious, not too chocolatey with lovely subtle hints of coffee layered within. Get the recipe here! Bon Appetit!

Jeff’s 24th birthday is on Monday, (my little Haley Joel’s growing up!), but we’re planning to celebrate this weekend. We’re kind of weird about birthdays, we don’t really go all out and get each other presents. In fact, I think the past 2 years we really haven’t done birthday presents at all, hmm. But what we lack in presents, we make up for in good food! Jeff and I are such foodies, and NYC definitely does a great job feeding that obsession, no pun intended. Instead of giving tangible gifts for birthdays, we usually go out to a nice dinner at a new restaurant we haven’t tried yet. Or sometimes, Jeff’s cool and instead of going out to dinner, he lets me get super adventurous in the kitchen and test out new recipes with new, sometimes expensive, but very yummy ingredients. And that’s what we’re doing this weekend for Jeff’s birthday! I know that sounds crazy, but I absolutely love spending hours in the kitchen baking and cooking. It’s therapeutic. I wouldn’t consider myself a great cook, I’m still learning. But making mistakes in the kitchen is part of the process of becoming a better cook!

After work today, I spent close to 2 hours in the grocery store on my quest for ingredients for this weekend’s dinner. I love perusing the aisles and learning about the different brands of ingredients I can use for a recipe, and it’s always fun when you find a good deal too! But why did I spend 2 hours in the grocery store today? Well, a good 30 minutes of it was spent looking for things for grilled steaks and a new potato recipe that I’m super jazzed about, but the remaining hour and a half was spent in the baking aisle. I freaking love the baking aisle. Even in my semi-low stocked grocery store, there’s still plenty of baking goodies to read and discover (I once spent almost 4 hours in Whole Foods, that place is like heaven to me, but I hardly ever buy anything because it’s so darn expensive…sigh, one day).

But anyway, back to baking. Jeff’s not really into sweet things, (other than me….ooh bam!), but he has a soft side for chocolate cake. Specifically chocolate cake with chocolate frosting….that’s my boy! So, I spent quite a few evenings this week surfing the interwebs for the most perfect chocolate cake recipe and by golly I do believe I’ve found it. Ina Garten’s Grandmother’s Chocolate Cake (recipe can be found on foodnetwork.com). It’s the perfect combination of crazy amounts of chocolate along with other rich flavors to enhance the chocolate flavor (ie: coffee!).

Long story short, I’m baking this bad boy tomorrow and I’ll do a full blog post about the process….I know you’re quivering in anticipation. But humor me here, I’m really excited. And If I could, you know I would give you all a piece

[Photos courtesy of FoodNetworkHumor]

The unfortunate thing is I have rehearsal tonight, and now there are 23 cupcakes sitting in my kitchen mocking me. Perhaps I should have scaled down the recipe? Oh well, that’s what human garbage disposal husbands are for right? I somehow have to stay out of the kitchen and away from the remaining cupcakes for the next week. This should be quite the challenge. But I guess if I caved and ate another cupcake tomorrow, but then ran two miles afterwards, I could call it even? Or get sick trying?

Ugh, I hate counting calories. But this video makes me smile

And I really really want this mug for my new job. I think it’s a subtle way to show authority no?

]]> http://2sistersblog.com/2010/02/23/kitchen-of-mass-destruction/feed/ 0 http://2sistersblog.com/2010/01/26/cookie-monsters/ http://2sistersblog.com/2010/01/26/cookie-monsters/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:10:52 +0000 AnnamalSF http://2sistersblog.com/?p=7671 I so wish I’d thought of this. It’s from “Oh no they Didn’t.” They came up with the brilliant idea to bake cookies and decorate them to match all of the crazy get-ups Lady GaGa has worn. Check out their blog to see even more up close! Here are a couple of my favorites though.

Just kidding. I found this photo on Apartment Therapy. Evidently it’s a Japanese fruit called an Aomikan. It’s a green tangerine with orange flesh (see photo above). I don’t really care what it is, I just think it looks cool. Every time I walk through Chinatown (yes I know China is different than Japan but Japantown is not near my apartment) – Anyway, every time I walk through Chinatown I’m always curious about the crazy foods they have on display at the markets. Some of them look downright scary, all spiny and gnarly. I’d be open to trying new fruits and veggies though (not so open to the meats).

Ahh, if only my Thanksgiving table could really look like this. Sadly, however, that dream will not be coming true this year, but I am one step closer to it! Yes, this year, dear readers, I am hosting my first Thanksgiving in my closet sized apartment. Mom, dad, Anna, Randy and little Jack Jack will be coming to town to celebrate Turkey Day with me and Jeff! We couldn’t be any more excited, (speaking of which, Anna have y’all booked your flight yet?) Alas, the sleeping arrangements are going to be a little less than desirable, ie: Mom and Dad in the bedroom and Me, Jeff, Anna and Randy on air mattresses in the nook that we like to call our “living room.” And don’t forget Jacky Bear, he’ll be snuggled in there with us too!

I know what you’re thinking, are you nuts? Yes, it will be a little tight in there, but I just didn’t have the heart to tell the parents or Anna and Randy to spend $1500 staying in a hotel for Thanksgiving, boo. Sooo, Seven’s Company here we come! But, back to the topic at hand: Thanksgiving dinner! I am taking it upon myself this year to do all of the grocery shopping and a lot of the cooking, big dreams right? Actually, I’m really up for the challenge and looking forward to it. I’m going to be introducing some of the recipes I’m planning over the next few days. First up, we have homemade Mac and Cheese! Mmmmmm, behold!

LOBSTER MAC AND CHEESE

Of course mine will have some minor adjustments. Most importantly, there’s no way I can afford lobster. So, we’ll just scratch that off the list of ingredients, haha. But I’ve actually made this dish before and it turned out DELICIOUS!! It was a huge hit with the hubby, so it will definitely be making an appearance on our Thanksgiving table.

My masterpiece!

Looks almost as yummy as the other one right? Humor me here!

]]> http://2sistersblog.com/2009/11/04/turkey-day/feed/ 1