X-Rated Desert

A note from the Author:  I'm sure when I started blogging that I electronically signed an agreement not to post anything explicit.  So, in an effort to comply, I will be editing this post with "words in quotes" as deemed necessary by my research team.  However, unless you want to answer unusual questions, I do not suggest looking at the pictures with your children.  Thank you.  


My mom turned 60 this month.  And though she is usually the kind of person to take everything in stride, she seemed a little down about turning 60.  So I thought... what does a 60 year old woman want on her birthday?  The answer is obvious.  What any woman wants on her birthday.

A 12 inch, black, "rocketship" cake.    (Not that I have anything against white "rocketships," just ask my research team.... I just happened to have chocolate cake mix in the cupboard.)

So I began the process of making her a "rocketship" cake.

As I said, I had some chocolate cake mix (devil's food, of course) in the cupboard, so I baked it in a 9x13 inch pan:

Beautiful!  I let it cool and carefully removed it from the pan.  (Carefully = I put some wax paper over a cookie pan, put that on top of the cake and flipped it over... when the cake didn't fall out, I banged on the bottom of it until it did.)

Then I cut some of the cake away to a nice "rocketship" shape.

No I did not have a stencil, I am just that good with "rocketships."

So then, I needed to add the "creamy center."  I experimented with several different options and settled on whipped cream and vanilla pudding mixed in equal parts. 

In order to get it in the center, I had to cut the top of the "rocketship" off.  Guys, you should probably look away...

It's "hard" to tell from the picture, but I cut a groove down the center of both halves.  Then I filled it with the "creamy center."

Next I carefully placed the top back on.  Guys, feel free to look again.

This is my favorite. cake. ever.

Next I needed to fill the "solid rocket boosters."

Again with the slicing, guys, you should look away.  I sliced the top off the "solid rocket boosters" and filled them with "creamy center."

Did I mention this is my favorite. cake. ever?   It is.

Then I carefully replaced the tops again.  Phew, done with the slicing, guys we are in the clear.

At this "point" I licked all the bowls clean.  So good.

Next I topped the whole thing with dark chocolate "sauce." 

Here is the finished product.

I could be wrong, but I think this will make Mom's day... if you know what I mean.


The Verdict:

"I'm not putting anything "rocketship" in my mouth.  Sorry."



Follow up:  The cake was delicious!  My mom loved it and we had lots of good jokes about the cake (none of which are appropriate for this blog, but you can use your imagination...).  Next naughty cake to look forward to... my dad turns 60 in December!   

Tacos

Since I have had success hiding vegetables in ground meat for enchiladas, I thought I'd try it for tacos.

I bought a package of taco seasoning, because while I am getting better at spicing up food, I can't quite get the spicy ground meat flavor right.  Anyways, I figured I'd hide pureed carrots because they are sweet, and then buy the 'hot' spicy seasoning for tacos.  So the sweet carrots would compliment the 'hot' spicy-ness.  Right?  

So here we go...

Brown 1 lb ground meat (I used beef), drain fat
Add:
Taco seasoning packet (I chickened out and only used half.  Sigh, I was afraid it would be too spicy!) 
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup carrot puree
1/4 cup tomato puree  (I used all the carrot puree, and then decided it needed more puree... tomato seemed like a good option for taco meat.)

Boil for 5 minutes...  see how it looks:

 Looks like taco meat!  Here are the toppings we used.  It's funny, I didn't have any lettuce or spinach or any lettuce-type product.  It's funny because I'm supposed to be the vegetable person!  Oh well. 

 

Other additional veggie idea:  use green peppers instead of taco shells.  Just half the green peppers and stuff with meat and extras.  So yummy.  Sort of a mexican version of stuffed green peppers.  (Had the leftovers this way, mmm mmm good.)

Here is my plate:

My research team made a taco pile:

The Verdict:

And I quote, "Tastes like tacos!"


They really were delicious tacos.  There was no sign of hidden veggies, and the flavor of the taco meat turned out so good.  It wasn't too spicy, yay!  I am always walking this fine line where my research team likes it spicier and I like it less spicy, but this time I got it right and we both thought it was great! 

Zucchini Bread!

Side note:  One of my good friends had a baby girl a few weeks ago, and she just posted a blog with her birth story.  I shed a tear and my heart swelled while reading her story.... and here I am posting about zucchini bread.  It seems sort of... lame... compared to childbirth!  :)  Well, congratulations Reyanna, and hopefully this gives you something mildly entertaining to read when you are up in the middle of the night.  :) 




This is my favorite time of the produce-year.  Not cherry season, not apricot season, not peach season... but zucchini and pumpkin bread season.  Mmmmmm, you just can't beat good zucchini or pumpkin bread.  I have to work really hard to not eat the whole loaf at one time...

 So my friends Kim and Chris have an awesome garden (they are so motivated!) and shared some zucchini with me.  My first one of the year!  Yay for the start of zucchini bread season!

Believe it or not, I actually follow a recipe from a cookbook.  What's a cookbook?  In the age of I-look-everything-up-online-before-I-make-it, this is one of the things I just keep using the same old standby.  So, unfortunately, no link available.   :) 

(Although, now that I think about it, I probably could find the website of the cookbook...)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Here are the instructions from the cookbook:
Preheat oven 350, grease 8x4x2 inch bread pan (I'm assuming that's what mine are?).  Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.  In a separate bowl, combine sugar, zucchini, oil, egg, and lemon peel; mix well.  Add dry mixture to wet and stir just until moistened, batter is lumpy.  Fold in nuts.   Spoon batter into pan, bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, cool on wire rack completely, wrap and store overnight.  (Yeah right.)


After I shredded the zucchini, I had 1 1/2 cups, so I made enough for all the zucchini.  I usually go a little heavier on the spices, and sometimes I put chocolate chips in!  (But not this time.)   I also made them in muffin cups instead.... Oh, and I forgot the nuts, and just remembered when I was filling the muffin cups.  So half the muffins got nuts on the top! 

They turned out great.  I usually freeze several loafs of zucchini bread, so I went ahead and froze about half of these also.  I put them in freezer bags and suck all the air out, they keep really well. 

Also, the recipe says to wrap it and store overnight... well in my experience, after it's been wrapped it does taste really good, but so far I have yet to conclude whether that is because it is actually better after it sits wrapped, or if it just tastes better because we have been WAITING AND WAITING to eat it!!  The loaf just sits there, taunting us...       

When I make it in a loaf, I usually do wrap it and refrigerate it until the next day, but muffins get eaten up right away.  And they are mmmmmgood.


The Verdict:

The research team ate all the zucchini muffins before dinner.  (Alright...I helped him.)  So I guess he liked them alright.  And I guess we won't be having any for breakfast!   :)


Something about muffins is more fun than a loaf.  Maybe it's because they look like cupcakes...   maybe it's because it's harder to eat the whole loaf at one time...   maybe it's because it's easier to justify putting chocolate frosting on muffins than it is on a loaf...   (Am I really that bad?   In the words of one Phineas Flynn:  "Why yes, yes I am.")

Not a hidden vegetable, but a learning experience...

I had seen pictures of ice cream cone cupcakes, and I was so excited to try them!   I envisioned spirals of frosting with sprinkles, spreading happiness all around!  I was going to make them for a party, but decided to do a practice run.  It was a good thing I did... here's what they looked like out of the oven:

Well, something was spread around, and it wasn't happiness!  :)  I just used a cake-in-a-box, and I filled the cones about 2/3 full, maybe just a little more.  As you can see, they over flowed, and the ones that runneth over, the cone became soggy where it ran over. 

Well, I frosted them anyway, because, homemade frosting can fix anything, right?

Well, they didn't actually taste that good.  It was weird, the cake sort of took on the flavor of the cone, which, as it turns out, wasn't very good.  And the longer they sat, the worse it got!  Also, right from the start, the cone wasn't as crunchy as it should be.  After a few days, we started just eating the frosting off the top and throwing out the rest!  (I do make really good frosting, it's the one thing I actually can make as good as my mom does!)

So, I didn't end up making them for the party.  But if anyone knows how people do this, and have it turn out well, I'd love to hear about it!!    (See, I'm still envisioning making cupcakes with sprinkles of joy...)

Manicotti

So there is a recipe on the box that the manicotti comes in, and that is the recipe I used.  (Plus some hidden cauliflower of course!)  But, unfortunately, I threw out the box... so this is a rough guess at the recipe.  

This is something I have been meaning to try for a while, because it is similar to the caulifredo recipe that works so well.  Substitute some cauliflower for cheese and no one is the wiser.

Alright, so let me see what I can remember...

1 box of manicotti  (which I don't recommend dropping on the floor... the pieces all break and that just sort of makes it weird shaped spaghetti)
Some tomato sauce (which I also don't recommend dropping on the floor...)
1 cup cauliflower 
Some ricotta cheese
Some parmesan cheese
Some mozzarella cheese
Some basil, salt, pepper
Maybe some oregano? 

Well, turns out I don't really remember the recipe at all, but it is on the box, so anyone can find it!  I think I used a little less of each of the cheeses to be replaced with cauliflower.  Here is a picture of some of the ingredients:   (If it weren't for this picture, I REALLY wouldn't have remembered!)

 Follow the directions.  Cook the pasta, mix up all the cheeses, cauliflower, and spices....

 Warm up the tomato sauce...

 Stuff the pasta with the cheese and cauliflower mixture, top with tomato sauce and extra cheese... ENJOY!

This did work well, but it's easy to hide a white vegetable in white cheese stuffing. 

The Verdict:

The research team liked it that night, loved the left overs, and though he knew there was cauliflower hidden in it, he couldn't taste it at all.

I will definitely do this recipe again!  (But without dropping the box on the floor...)