Yellow sheet cake

I don't usually make sheet cakes because in the faraway past my 9x13 cakes used to sink the middle. So I switched to making bundt cakes instead. They're beautiful and there's no middle TO sink.

And I'm not a frosting person, either.

BUT. I wanted to make a birthday cake for my friend, who asked for yellow cake with chocolate frosting. You can't really do that with a bundt cake. Drizzle, sure, but that's not the same.

So I made this recipe, which promises to be pretty foolproof:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/

And you know what? It seems to be foolproof indeed.

I did not use cake flour; I sifted regular flour, then measured it, added the salt and leavening, and sifted again.

I lined my 9x13 with parchment paper and then sprayed with with flour-oil spray just to be sure. I baked it for somewhere around 43-45 minutes and let it cool for 10 on a rack and then inverted it onto a cookie sheet, where it currently awaits its fate (frosting, then being eaten.) It came out of the pan beautifully and while it got a bit domed in the oven, it fell just enough to be pretty flat and smooth as it was cooling - perfect.

I made this frosting recipe: http://comfortablydomestic.com/2012/02/14/milk-chocolate-buttercream/

but using better millk chocolate than Hershey's, and using half and half instead of heavy whipping cream because that's what I had around and I don't think it will affect the consistency.

 VERDICT: quite excellent for a yellow cake. Quite good for a not super chocolate-y frosting (which is what my friend wanted.) Also? If you cut raspberries along their equator, they look like flowers. Nice for simple cake decorating for people that don't like wacky colors of icing. (I decorated the cake with melted chocolate chips in a piping bag...well, ok, in a ziploc bag with a tiny corner cut off. Bonus is that the chocolate hardens so the writing won't smear when you're transporting the cake.)

(crock) pot roast

2.4 lbs of chuck roast, rubbed with garlic powder, salt (not kosher salt, we didn't have any), pepper

browned on both sides in a hot cast iron pan (heated it up, then put in a good amount of coconut oil. Almost burnt on one side really.

1 medium onion, sliced about in 8ths, on the bottom of a preheated 6-qt crock pot on low.

chuck roast into pan. ~4 sliced carrots, 2 small sliced peeled potatoes (because they weren't in good shape, the peels were icky), 1 stalk of celery, another sliced onion place around it.

deglazed the pan with a bit over a 1/2 cup of mushroom stock (it's what I had), dumped that over the meat in the crockpot. Added two sprigs of fresh rosemary from outside because why not.

Covered. we'll see what's up in ~8 hours...I've never done anything like this before.

VERDICT: 8-9 hours later...it smells and tastes awesome and the meat seems tender. The chunk I picked off was tasty.

Also I did not know there was a string around the whole piece of meat...whoops. But I assume it was food-safe/heat-safe string. 

I definitely need to make this more often. Next I'd like to experiment with whether I can put more vegetables in without compromising anything. Because oh man, carrots and potatoes cooked with beef are tasty.

Cauliflower casserole

Currently in the oven, an adaptation of this recipe: http://www.theironyou.com/2013/12/cheesy-cauliflower-souffle-low-carb.html

I used 2lbs of packaged cauliflower florets (thank you Grocery Outlet bargains), which I steamed in water

I ground them with an immersion blender and a bit over a cup of buttermilk. Seasoned with salt, pepper, a clove of garlic run through a press, some nutmeg, some paprika, and about a TBS of prepared mustard. (Couldn't find powdered mustard here where I'm dogsitting.) Then I blended in 3 eggs (I don't really need souffle-type texture and I suspect I'll eat most of this as leftovers) and stirred in maybe a cup and a half of grated cheddar.

Currently baking at 400 degrees in a large cast iron skillet which had been pre-heated in oven with some oil in it, which I spread around the pan and up the sides before dumping in the cauliflower mixture. And now we wait!

Verdict: not great. It never quite firmed up, probably because it was about 2" high in the pan I used. The flavors were good together but I'd do something different with the texture if I do it again. Which, to be honest, is unlikely. It's a lot of effort for something kind of boring - why not just eat steamed cauliflower and a cheese omelet instead? 

What not to do: roasted vegetables

I wanted to make something like this soup because I had a whole cauliflower and 3 peeled sweet potatoes sitting in my fridge that needed to be used up, pronto. The soup sounded good.

I roasted the vegetables as directed, not thinking too much. They smelled great. Then I tasted them. Holy crap. Ridiculously salty (and I do enjoy salt.) Unbearably salty. So salty, in fact, that I didn't think it would be a good idea to try to make soup because even if hte other soup ingredients cut the salt a bit, I'd either have to use broth (which would be salty, and thus add more salt) or use water, which might not lend enough flavor.

So instead I microwaved a potato and mashed it up with some of the sweet potato-cauliflower mixture and some sour cream. It's still really salty.

Lesson learned. 2 TBS salt to one cauliflower + 3 large sweet potatoes is too much. I could have guessed that. Bigger lesson, I guess, is to pay attention and trust your gut.

Recipes I Haven't Used (yet): Crushed Chickpea Soup

Want to make this: http://www.sfgate.com/recipes/weeknightdish/article/December-dinners-that-will-get-a-warm-reception-5083283.php

From the link:

Crushed Chickpea Soup

Serves 6
To make this a vegetarian dish, substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3/4 teaspoon cumin
• 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• -- Pinch cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• -- Kosher salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 cans (about 14.5 ounces) chickpeas, 2 drained and 1 with bean liquid
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock (for stock, see recipe elsewhere in this section)
• 1 can (about 14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley + more for garnish
• -- Lemon juice to taste, if desired
• -- Greek yogurt and pita chips, for serving

Instructions: Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic; cook, stirring often, until the onions soften, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the cumin, paprika, cinnamon and lemon zest, and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes to blend the spices.
Add the chickpeas and liquid from 1 can and the chicken broth; bring to a simmer and cook about 20 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, and cook for 5 minutes more.
Using a potato masher, lightly crush the chickpeas in the pot. Stir in the parsley, and season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice, if needed.
Garnish with parsley, and serve topped with yogurt and accompanied by pita chips.
Per serving: 338 calories, 16 g protein, 49 g carbohydrates, 10 g fat (1 g saturated), 3 mg cholesterol, 304 mg sodium, 14 g fiber.

(Green) split pea soup

from http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=936650 with modifications

6 cups water + Vegetable Bouillon powder (maybe 2 heaping TBS)
2 cups dried green split peas, rinsed (I used a 1-lb bag, that may be more than 2 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup chopped carrots
3 celery ribs with leaves, chopped (celery leaves are bitter and gross and not a substitute for parsley or whatever people may claim.)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried marjoram I used oregano 'cause I didn't have marjoram
1/2 tsp ground cumin
(omitted salt because bouillon is salty)
1/4 tsp pepper


I just dumped all this in a crock pot overnight, no sauteeing first. I heated the crock pot up a bit while I was chopping vegetables, and I boiled a kettle of water to dump over it. I left it on high for maybe half an hour and then turned it to low and let it cook for about 8 or 9 hours.

Verdict: pretty good.

soup (beef? barley? vegetable? ginger? it doesn't have enough of any of those to be named for them, so just "soup")

Nothing fancy, but I was surprised at how much flavor this had, especially since I didn't add much salt and the stock (I used Imagine "beef flavored cooking stock," low sodium, organic - 99 cent bargain at Grocery Outlet) had only 6% of the RDA of sodium per serving.

Saute:
1 onion, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
about 3 not-huge carrots, sliced
1 clove of garlic, sliced
some salt
some pepper

in oil for a while, maybe 10 minutes.

Add 1 quart of (low-sodium) beef stock, plus two more chopped cloves of garlic, plus about 3/4" cube of fresh ginger, grated, plus a handful or two of barley.

Simmer for half an hour or 45 minutes.

I added in some shredded cabbage toward the end of cooking once, and that was nice too. As was throwing in some chopped fresh tomatoes. It's all good. Mostly I'm just amazed at what beef stock does for a soup (I haven't had the same experience with boxed chicken stock.)