[Inez] Triple layer chocolate-peanut butter cake w/chocolate cream cheese frosting

Every year at Haverford there's a Senior Auction where seniors auction off things, events, or favors to raise money for Senior Week at the end of the year. Ella and I donated a triple layer chocolate-peanut butter cake with cream cheese frosting. It went for $45!

I have to confess that we made the cakes yesterday and it didn't occur to me till this morning to take pictures. As you can see, we had to get a little creative with the baking pans, because we were going for a tiered effect.

Then, true to form, I completely forgot to photograph the frosting-making process, and only remembered about my camera when I was 2/3 done frosting the cakes. Whoops!

The frosting is a family recipe that I feel a little sacrilegious sharing, but since it was my mom who initially requested that we post recipes, I'll do it. It's really simple:

6 oz. bittersweet bakers chocolate

1 package cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 cup whipping cream

Melt the chocolate slowly on a double boiler. Whip the cream cheese, add vanilla and 4 T of the sugar. Whip to combine. When chocolate is partially cooled (not hot to the touch), beat into the cream cheese. Whip the cream with the remaining 2 T of sugar. Fold the whipped cream (patiently!) into the cream cheese mixture. If necessary, refrigerate for 10-15 minutes before frosting the cake. Makes enough frosting for a double layer cake (we made a 1.5 recipe).

Ella felt inspired, so she whipped up some more cream cheese with sugar to add some decoration.

Finished product!

[Elise] Dinner Party

I threw a small dinner party yesterday, mainly as an excuse to make these delicious-looking Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies. Yes, three amazing things rolled into one. So since that was the main point, I'll start there

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies:

Ingredients:

1 c flour
2 c sugar
7 oz butter
7 oz dark chocolate
8 oz raspberries
14 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs

To start, take the butter, cream cheese, and eggs out of the fridge an hour before starting so everything can soften.

Beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar until fluffy, then add three of the eggs, one at a time, blending each in completely before adding the next. Once these are blended melt the chocolate (microwave is easiest, but don't over nuke). Let cool a little bit until warm instead of hot, before adding to the butter/sugar/egg mix. Finally, fold in the flour slowly. This is the brownie batter!

In a separate bowl beat the remaining cup of sugar, the remaining 2 eggs, the cream cheese, the vanilla, and a 5-10 raspberries. until mixed. This is the cheesecake filling!


Assembling the brownies:

First a layer of brownie batter (about 2/3 of the mix).

Then all of the cheesecake mix poured out on top.

Add the remaining brownie batter in globs.

Using a butter knife, marble the cheesecake with the brownie globs.

Finally, press in frozen raspberries.

Bake for 45-60 minutes (depending on the thickness) at 175 C (350 ºF)

Dinner Preparation

Dinner itself was a much more straigforeward affair. I made dish of picadillo with a side of oven fries. The following recipes fed the five of us modestly (no leftovers, but no empty stomachs)

Oven Fries (sorry no process pictures!)

1 1/2 kilos baking potatoes
Rapeseed (Canola) oil
Spices: I used oregano, rosemary, and thyme

Slice the potatoes into wedges (I did six per potato). In a large bowl pour about a half cup of oil, and mix in desired amount of seasonings. Add a few handfuls of wedges at a time, making sure they are thouroughly coated in oil and seasonings. Line up wedges peel side down on a baking tray covered on parchement paper. Bake at 200 C (~390 ºF) for 40-45 minutes.

Pork Picadillo

2 Cups veggies (I used onions)
3 cloves garlic
1 lb groud pork (beef is more common, but I didn't know the word in Danish yet!)
Rapeseed oil (enough to coat pan)
12 oz can stewed tomatoes


I whipped this up while the potatoes were in the oven. I started with chopping 2 small red onions, 2 small yellow onions, and the garlic. I think normally half the veggies would be peppers, but the peppers at the store didn't look very apetizing, and the onions looked delicious!

I coated the bottom of the pan with oil and one hot, I added the veggies, and sauteed for about two minutes. Then I added the pork, and a little more oil, when it started sticking, broke it up with the spatula and cooked until the pork was cooked through. The last step is to add the can of tomatoes, mix in, cover, reduce the heat to medium, and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

When served it looked like this (and it hit the spot!):

Finally, as dinner rapped up it was time to pull out the labored over desert (served with coffee and tea)

It was absolutely delicious. The chocolate balanced the cheesecake beautifully, and the tartness of the raspberries and the sweetness of the cheesecake layer played very nicely together. If there was anything wrong with it, it would have been that the brownie layer was a bit on the dry side, but the cheesecake was so moist that it really didn't matter.


After dessert, we watched Se7ven, Pulp Fiction, and Casablanca.

[Elise] Afghan: part 2

Since my last post I have done a lot of knitting, and of course, took pictures along the way to track progress:

As a side note, I got new yellow flats on sale at H&M.

Here the right side edging is done. While I liked the look of the zigzag edges hanging off the edge of my bed, a little bit of trial cozying led me to decide to edge the whole thing.

Here the left edging is (mostly) present. Also, I redid the top edging with one stich less in width, and it looks much better, althought it's hard to tell because it's small, but you can compare to the top pigture in this post.

This was as far as I got with the 4 skeins of yarn shown in the first post, but it's over half done (as you can see from the plan) So although I have to wait for the next shipment of yarn, it will be the last! (and it should be here any day now!)

Then next update will likely come when I'm finished!

[Inez] Kitchen orchid

Okay so I know this is a blog for cooking and knitting and stuff -- in other words beautiful things that we create -- but I have to share this orchid. This is an orchid that my housemate Rebecca bought early last fall. It bloomed for a long time, and eventually the blooms fell off. It sat dormant for about two months, and then it grew a second stalk and bloomed again!

I can take no responsibility for this orchid. I've never watered it or talked to it sweetly or fertilized it. I didn't even buy it. I just marvel at it. Here is the orchid in its natural environment in the kitchen:

And here is the orchid in its photoshoot spot (the living room):

[Inez] SB2K9

I just got back from a week in Isle of Palms, SC with the men and women's ultimate frisbee teams for spring break. I was food captain for the week with two other people, which means that we organized the cooking teams for every night and made sure we had supplies for breakfast and lunch. I was also on a cooking team for one of the dinners. I meant to photograph the full process of cooking for 49 hungry athletes, but I forgot until it was almost ready! Sheesh. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the final prep.

We made hamburgers, black bean burgers, pasta salad, grilled veggies, and oreo ice cream pies for dessert.

Here's Ashley (one of my co-Food Captains and also one of the captains of the team -- not to mention one of my favorite people at Haverford) with one of the bowls of pasta salad. This is the one with olives (ick).

Simon at his burger frying post. In addition to being a master burger griller, this guy can open bottles with his teeth. Impressive.

The gas grill ran out of gas partway through grilling the veggies, so we ended up doing it on the stove and in the oven.

Many, many sliced tomatoes, onions, pickles, and lettuce to go on the burgers.

Cooking dream team (left to right)-- Simon, Fossi (partially obscured), Ashley, and Cara.

We didn't really use recipes, so I can't give them to you. I can tell you what went into the dishes, though. The burgers had white onion, ketchup, garlic (I think?), and ground beef (end product = delicious). The bean burgers had smushed up black beans, green pepper, onion, salt, pepper, and some spices (use whatever you want-- cumin, etc). The pasta salad had green, red, yellow, and orange peppers, white and red onion, carrots, parmesan cheese, kidney beans, chick peas, olive oil, vinegar, and olives (optional).

[Elise] Afghan: part 1

Last Thursday my Yarn arrived in a squishy purple package. First I pulled everything out. Took pictures. Pet the yarn, squeezed the yarn, smelled the yarn (it smelled surprizingly good!), got a general feel for the weight and how it handles. Finally I balled the yarn up and started planning my attack. I have to say; this yarn held up completely to my expectations. The color is vivid and varied, it's soft, and knit up into a garter stich (which comprises most of the blanket) it is strechy, but limp in a good way. In a way that falls very nicely across your body, keeping you cozy and warm.


So once the yarn was balled up I began to knit...

One of the initial starter blocks.

...and knit...

the results after my first evening of knitting

...and knit...

The full width of the blanket (upside down). CD for relative size.

...and knit!

The full width begining to elongate, also with full top border. At this point it's starting to look and feel like a real blanket.

More updates to come as the blanket progresses.