Birthday cakes

For Roland's 6th birthday party,  he wanted a two-tier cake covered in sprinkles.

It wasn't beautiful,  but I did it! To appeal to the widest variety,  I did half yellow cake and half chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. 

I used the chocolate cake I have made many times.  I found a yellow cake recipe on the same blog - web address- and I tried making Swiss buttercream-https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/swiss-meringue-buttercream/#tasty-recipes-80765

Since I couldn't find the right size cake pan,  I just cut down the upper layer.  I had a hard time making them even! 

I made quite a mess putting on the sprinkles, but it looked great and tasted better. 

For Roland's 8th birthday he wanted vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, so I will make this:https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/new-favorite-white-layer-cake/

GF Crepes

 https://www.mamaknowsglutenfree.com/gluten-free-crepes

I made this recipe for La Chandeleur on the lefse griddle and they were pretty good. Based on the videos I saw, I think it's easier to spread out the batter with a t-shaped tool to make them extra thin. I made do with a spatula.

We had strawberry, banana, Nutella, and peanut butter toppings.

Macarons

 https://thebeachhousekitchen.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-macarons/#wprm-recipe-container-21486

Made these on New Year's day because Leela loves them. I had a hard time following the instructions and had a couple missteps in the egg white whipping. I missed adding the plain sugar. I added it after I whipped the egg white. Then I forgot to add the vanilla at the soft peak stage and had to keep whipping after I added it.

I probably under mixed the batter after adding the almond flour mixture because the shells were slightly hollow. Also, I baked both trays at the same time and some we bigger than others and they cooked slower than the "normal"-sized ones.

Generally, this tutorial is what I followed the first time and I think it is very informative.

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/french-macarons/

Peanut butter frosting

 I used this recipe for frosting L's chocolate birthday cake 

https://sugarspunrun.com/peanut-butter-frosting/#recipe

Very simple and turned out great 

R's Birthday cake 2024

R drew me a picture of a cake he wanted for his birthday. It was quite an elaborate three-layer cake with three different flavors inside.

Lemon on the bottom, chocolate in the middle and red velvet on the top. 

Because I didn't want to do everything at once and at the last minute, I made one layer at a time and froze each one to make assembly much easier 

I used half this recipe for a 9" cake pan for the bottom lemon layer 

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/lemon-cake/#tasty-recipes-66829

I used half this recipe for a 9" cake pan for the top red velvet layer 

 https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/red-velvet-layer-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/#tasty-recipes-66373

I also used the frosting recipe for the outside of the cake. 

I had some whipped chocolate ganache that also went between the chocolate layer and the red velvet layer.

Thumbprint cookies

 I made these for Christmas over two years ago and I'm finally posting. I really enjoyed them! 

I used homemade peach jam in the middle 😋 

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020653-thumbprints-with-dulce-de-leche-nutella-or-jam?smid=ck-recipe-android-share

Thanksgiving 2022

 I made cranberry sauce, roasted Brussels sprouts, vegan pumpkin pie, and vegan pecan pie.

Pumpkin pie 

https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-pumpkin-pie/#wprm-recipe-container-3405

Pecan pie 

https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-pecan-pie/#wprm-recipe-container-11340 

With the crust from https://minimalistbaker.com/pecan-pie-bars-vegan-gluten-free/

Indian take out at home

 Since the closest Indian restaurant is at least 50 miles away, I have been trying to make my own. Some tries have been more successful than others. The night after Diwali, I made a feast, and it was mostly for me and E, since the kids don’t really like it too much.

I made aloo mattar, not in the instant pot this time- https://www.manjulaskitchen.com/aloo-mattar-potatoes-and-green-peas/

Dal makhani, in the instant pot-https://www.manjulaskitchen.com/dal-makhani/

Chole palak, I used frozen kale because that’s what I had  - https://www.manjulaskitchen.com/chole-palak-chickpeas-with-spinach/

and naan - https://rasamalaysia.com/naan/#mv-creation-11

I thought everything was wonderful. I really like the website I found for most of the recipes. The Dal makhani was a little more soupy than I wanted, but maybe it’s more authentic that way? 🤷🏼‍♀️ 

Thanksgiving 2020

 I made Thanksgiving dinner for just our immediate family this year. I started cooking on Wednesday evening, resumed Thursday morning and cooked all through the day.  The kids helped quite a bit and I had a lot of fun with it.

Menu included -

Vegan seitan roast which I made from scratch since we couldn't find a pre-made tofurkey roast.

Mashed potatoes

Stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Roasted Brussels sprouts with maple glaze

Pecan and chocolate pie

Vanilla Cake

R’s quarantine birthday happened and he said he wanted a vanilla cake I halved this recipe from King Arthur flour and made it into cupcakes. I frosted it with cream cheese frosting. They were pretty good on the first day, but were not as moist as I hoped for. The leftovers were stored in the cookie tin and became more moist. I think I ate all the rest -cupcakes and frosting!

Thyme Roasted Sweet Potatoes

This recipe is a favorite of mine for Thanksgiving. It can have a kick depending on how much red pepper is added. My preference is to use dried thyme rather than fresh because the dried coats the sweet potatoes and the flavor gets everywhere.

Christmas 2019

I made scalloped potatoes and spicy beans with cheese for dinner. Not super traditional, and quite cheesy, but it did the trick. I used the amount of salt prescribed, but as table salt it was far too much!
I liked the bean dish too. I used Rancho Gordo scarlet runner beans that I previously cooked in the instant pot.

I made a cranberry pear crisp with the pears that my parents get every year and always forget about them. I made more filling than the recipe called for and put everything in a 9x 13 pan. I really liked this. The ginger really gave it a kick.

Thanksgiving 2019

I made:
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce 
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Served with a vegan roast.
The stuffing was good, but I reduced the butter considerably especially since I was using stale croissants and didn’t have some of the vegetables. It still turned out pretty good.
I didn’t care for the gravy, it was too thick. I’ll go back to my trusted mushroom gravy recipe.
Overall, a great dinner, but I was cooking all day!

Birthday bash: Yogurt Veggie Dip, Cupcakes and Sangria.

I was preparing for Leela's birthday the day before and wanted to have some kind of dip for vegetables and crackers. I had plain yogurt on hand so my internet searching came up with a Garlic-Chive Greek Yogurt Dip. I had Icelandic-style skyr, which is close enough to Greek for me. It was super easy, I used chives from our backyard garden and making it the night before allowed the flavors to develop. I thought it was very tasty and many other people seemed to like it too! To go along with the dip, I cut up cauliflower, red pepper, celery, and had a package of baby carrots, along with some party crackers.

For dessert, we had strawberries, watermelon and cupcakes! Leela wanted chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. I used the chocolate cake recipe from Ebon's Birthday in cupcake form. I made two batches. The first batch I over-filled a bit and had some spill over, it didn't matter in the end because I was using the silicone cups and a paper liner inside. The excess came off pretty cleanly. I baked them for about 20 min or so. The second batch I did a better job of filling, but I forgot about them and over baked them. They weren't burned, but were definitely much drier than the first. I got 24+ cupcakes from the batter.
Further sleuthing on the same blog I found her vanilla frosting recipe. I tripled the recipe which ended up being way too much because I used a spatula to frost instead of a piping bag which probably would have used more frosting.

Sangria I used 2L Chablis (from a box wine) 1 cup of Grand Marnier, 2 cups of blueberries, a peach, and a nectarine. It wasn't very sweet and I wasn't able to pour out the nectarines, but I thought it was pretty good. Maybe could have been a little sweeter with some kind of bubbly ginger ale or something like that.

Christmas "Meat"balls

This post is only two months overdue! Ebon doesn't really like to make a big deal about holidays, but I want to try to have some sort of traditions. So I decided to make a substantial dinner for us on Christmas. I decided on making "Meat"balls, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans or peas, I can't remember now.

I made these lentil walnut balls. I really liked the meatballs and should make them again to freeze for a quick dinner. I skipped the kale and used breadcrumbs instead of the oatmeal.

I found out that Ebon doesn't really like my chunky mushroom gravy and would prefer a plain brown gravy. I'll be on the hunt for a new recipe shortly, or I'll have to figure out how to modify my current recipe (which I like).