My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and it was like most typical weekend days for me. I cooked, cleaned and spent time with my bf. I enjoy the simplicity. For my birthday we did take Katsu to the dog park...his second visit ever. Now that he is neutered, chipped and feeling tons better, I feel only slightly better about his off leash play...you see Katsu doesn't have the greatest recall skill. We are working on it. I look at it this way at least at the dog park he can run and play in relative safety.

So last nights dinner was a new recipe that I spied online a few weeks back and I have wanted to try. I love meals that cook up in the crock pot. I consider it a form of torture to have the aroma of fantastic food wafting through the house all day long. Not to mention the simplicity of not having a ton of pots and pans to clean up before, during and after the dinner.

You start with a crock pot...then after you take the photo you wash the crock pot again because someone didn't get it clean the last time they used it...me.

Into the crockpot you add one 14oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice.

Then you add some fresh Thyme (about 1 or 2 teaspoons), one medium diced onion, two cloves minced garlic and roughly one small can of tomato paste (if you use the whole can of tomato paste I would add a little red wine). Give it a good stir to combine with the tomatoes.

You can used a chuck roast, but I happened to have an arm roast on hand. I cut the bone out (fed the marrow to the chupacabra who was watching me intently) placed the roast on the top of the tomato mixture in the crock pot. Liberally salt and pepper the meat

Put on the lid and set it to cook for 8 hours on low. That's it. Done. When the dish is done cooking go in with a couple of forks and pull apart any large chunks of meat that remain.

Doesn't that look amazing? To finish this dish you take a 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil, zest from one small lemon and a drizzle one or two tablespoons of olive oil and toss together in a small bowl.

Place the meat and sauce on top of hot pasta and the basil topping on top of the meat followed with some fresh grated cheese. See doesn't that look amazing? Don't forget the crusty bread...Yum. Perfect dinner. I used trottolle pasta. It is fun and interesting.

What's a birthday without a birthday cake? So I did not make my own birthday cake...everyone was surprised about that, but I did get a really nice tiramisu cake from a local bakery...It was really quite good...seriously who bakes there own birthday cake?

My kids were here for dinner last night which was nice...thanks D.H. and D.C. for washing the dishes and tidying up the kitchen for me. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We are off to a family gathering today, and I was smart enough to take a day off tomorrow to spend some time with me.

St. Patrick's Day

So yesterday we had a family dinner at the bf's Aunt and Uncle's house in honor of St. Patrick's Day. The house was bursting with good food, family and friends and thankfully all I had to do was show up with a loaf of Irish Soda Bread.

Irish Soda Bread is one of the easiest breads there is to make, it takes very little time, and barley and kneading is involved. My Irish Soda Bread recipe comes from an old Better Homes and Gardens cook book that I have had on hand for many wonderful recipes for many wonderful years. I make a very standard recipe I don't add raisins or currents and I do not use whole wheat flour. The recipe is as follows: 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3 Tlb. butter, 1 beaten egg, 3/4 to 1 cup of fresh buttermilk, and 1 more egg beaten in separate dish to brush on the top of the bread before baking. Directions cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender in a large bowl until you have what resembles crumbs. then add the butter milk and one beaten egg and mix together until you have a slightly sticky dough (if you need to add a touch more buttermilk now is the time)The dough should be like biscuit dough. Place dough on lightly floured surface and knead about 12 strokes. Form a 6 inch round loaf that is slightly higher in the center than on the edges (like a scone)then cut a 4 inch cross into the top and center of the dough. Brush the top of the dough with the some of the second beaten egg and bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 25 to 35 minutes (depending on your oven). Let it cool before you cut into slices or it will fall apart completely.

The second thing that I brought to the family gathering was a Ricotta & Dark Chocolate Cake. I made this cake because I wanted to try something new and different than the standard chocolate cake or desserts that I usually bake and take to these family parties. This recipe comes from a food blogger that I stumbled upon and this recipe is one I just had to try. It is simple and tasty and perfect for taking to a party. I also have confirmation that it is delicious if a two year old boy eating three slices is any sort of proof.

The ingredient conversion is as follows: 10 1/2 oz. of whole milk ricotta cheese, 3 eggs, 5 1/4 oz of raw sugar, 7 oz. of spelt flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt and 8 3/4 oz of dark chocolate (72% cacao). If you can't find a 72% cacao dark chocolate do what I do use a lesser percentage (mine was 64% cacao)but add like a 1/4 tsp of dry instant coffee. Now that the ingredients are converted follow the rest of the directions and you will be just fine. This batter is very thick.

Combining the cheese, eggs and sugar.

Getting ready to melt the chocolate in the microwave.

Prepared pan dusted with cocoa powder.

Adding the dry ingredients.

Melted chocolate.

Abandoned the mixer and started using a large spoon.

You can see that the batter is very thick.

Looking good baby.

Perfection!

Now to serve that amazing chocolate cake I simply sliced off both ends and discarded them (which means I ate them) and then sliced the rest of the cake like a loaf of bread overlapping each slice on top of each other and gave it a good dusting of confectioners sugar. The presentation was simple yet classy.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours.