There is a first and last time for everything...

...and this is the first and last time that I will make Cake Pops. Holy mother of devil's food, it was madness. First you bake a two layer cake (I chose devil's food). Then you destroy the cake in a giant mixing bowl and mix in (with your hands, not a spoon or else you have devil's food-parts flying all about) 1.5 cups of double fudge chocolate frosting. Once it becomes the consistancy of playdough, you scoop out relatively small spheres and set them on a baking sheet. Then you dip one end of a sucker stick in melted chocolate and spear the cake balls with the chocolatey end to adhere them. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for at least 45 minutes to make sure that the stick and cake ball are well adhered and then bring em out fot the grand finale. Melt any type of chocolate you like ( i did milk chocolate...my very favorite, and mint-flavored white chocolate). Dip the cake balls into the chocolate and use a spoon to help cover the uncovered parts so that you don't risk losing the cake from your stick (it gets really heavy and difficult to manage). Then leave them on wax paper to dry and then transfer them to a platter and you're ready to wow your audience.

But whatever you do, don't forget to leave time to clean up your kitchen, post cake-balling. Mine was a MESS! I had devil's food all over, frosting everywhere, tons of dishes with hardened chocolate and sprinkles covering my whole world. I'm telling you, this was fun once, and the people at the dinner party like them...but man alive, that was some serious work.

P.S. I made 20 originally and only 13 made it out of the final chocolate dipping alive and well. Total challenge!

Tiny Tuna Tostadas

This is what happens when you only have a few ingredients left. Not bad though, i must say I will make these again. Tons of protein, fiber, and healthy as heck.

1 can of tuna in water

1/4 cup shredded provolone

1 tomato

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 whole wheat tortillas

Bake at 350 for two shakes of a lamb's tail and voila!

Mid-Summer's Night Snack

I've found that if I've got a bad case of the snacks (just wanna eat something...anything...feed me!) that veggies are my best bet. Especially if I'm snackish at night. It used to be cereal but cereal is dangerous to me...can't seem to get enough, it's just so tasty and perfect. Then it was blue corn chips and hummus. I had to end that relationship immediately. I found myself booty-calling the irrestistible combo late nights, waking only to find that my pantaloons were too tight and all that were left were the crumbs of our scandalous affair.

Anyhow, let's not relive that sad tale of loss and codependency. Onto the good stuff...SUMMER SQUASH! I will be honest, i'm not a huge fan of the spongey texture so I have to slice those bad boys super thin. Then I drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet, rub the slices onto the oil front/back, sprinkle crushed sea salt, garlic, pepper, and the squeeze a lemon liberally over the whole thing. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (i like my well done, bake to your liking) and voila! Perfect snack packed with flavor. Almost makes me not miss the days of blue corn chips and I...but I digress. Enjoy!

Billy D. Basil (my basil plant, in case you're new here) has once again been sheared. He needed a hair cut and I needed a caprese-style pizza. You know the story.

Sorry for the delay in posts. I have been a busy little socialite without an appetite. Also, I haven't been grocery shopping since God was a boy so the cabinets are pretty bare. I road-trip in two weeks so I promise to get more posts up beforehand.

Have excellent days, dear readers!

Busy-Bee, Braiding Bread

How do you do? I stumbled upon this recipe and thought it was such a fun idea. However, it needed serious adaptations. For starters, it was originally named the "taco braid". I was disturbed. Secondly, and more disturbing, was the crust was made from Pillsbury ready-made pizza crust. Fine, if you want a crust with 18 ingredients...yep, you heard me. I was able to pronounce about 5 of the 18...anyway, no thanks. The point is that I wanted to make this stuffed braided bread but I wanted to do it my way. So here's what happened:

Crust: 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons ground flax, 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, 1/2 tablespoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast mixed with 1/2 cup of warm water...so that gives us five ingredients plus water. Take that, Pillsbury dirtbags...filling my friends with chemicals and using that rotund white character to make it seem alright. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Filling: Turkey, provolone cheese, sauteed spinach and onions.

Baked for 15 minutes (just enough time to get in a quick set of pilates) at 400 and voila! Incredibly tasty and my body is super happy to process such unprocessed vittles. Mmmmm!

indecisiveness paid off!

After biking this evening, I was ravenous! I purposely never keep "handy", "quick", or "ready-made" foods in the house. I find that if I don't have to work for it, I'll toss it down the hatch without thinking twice, hungry or not.

Next comes a Sophie's Choice situation. Pizza or Fajitas. My oh my, life can be impossible at times (yes, sarcasm). Meanwhile, unlike poor Sophie, I didn't have to choose. I made both! Introducing....STEAK FAJITA PIZZA!!!

Crust:

whole wheat, yeast, agave nectar, and ground cumin

Sauce:
tomato, corn, and chile salsa with a bit of tomato paste mixed in to thicken things up

Toppings:

Tri-colored peppers, black beans, read onion, and steak strips, a touch of cheese (shown on top picture, bottom picture is pre-cheese)

Gobbled up the first few pieces and the rest is in the freezer...where it's safe from my spontaneous consumption.

Persimmon Passion!

I've tried, and tried, and tried...but I am a wordless woman. It is incredibly difficult to describe to you these flavors. I'll tell you when this cake consists of, and you draw your own conclusions. But just know, it's better than you can ever imagine.

Persimmon bundt cake:

3 large Fuyu persimmons

1/2 cup raisins

2 cups whole wheat flour

cinnamon, nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

8 oz agave nectar (sans sugar)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

I never imagined a cake without sugar could be this sweet. Behold, the power of the persimmon.