My First Real Birthday Cake

OK, I am obviously not celebrating my first birthday. I just decorated my first birthday cake for my father-in-law who celebrated his birthday recently. His favorite cake was yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For practice and in class, we always used white frosting. Since I did not want to take a chance, I bought 2 jars of Duncan Hines chocolate frosting. It is tasty by all means (although a little too sweet for my taste), but it is really hard to smooth, unlike the white frosting.

I ran out of ideas and I just got back from traveling for work that night, so here it is. I had to do it that Friday night because his birthday was on Saturday. Here is the picture of my humble cake.



Oh, my husband also gave this to his dad as part of his birthday gift, the new Crown Royal Black. It tastes smooth. If you like whiskey, this is a good one for you. :)

Mexican Fiesta Dinner

My husband is a huge fan of Mexican food. Not just Tex-mex, but also real authentic Mexican food.
I gave him Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless as a Christmas gift last year and we have tried a few recipes out of this book. Last weekend we decided to try new recipes. We tried to make Chicken in Oaxacan Yellow Mole with Green Beans and Potatoes. The recipe recommended using chayote and fresh hoja santa leaves, but we couldn't find it either of them in our regular grocery store. We followed the rest of the recipe. I have to admit that this recipe is not your typical 30-minute meal. The preps took a long time, from chopping the garlic, slicing the guajillo chiles, to cubing the chicken thighs and potatoes. The result was outstanding and well worth the effort. There are so many layers of flavors in the broth and it was really comforting.

We also tried making some corn tortillas from scratch. We used some masa harina (Mexican corn flour), water and salt. We haven't quite mastered how to do it yet. After putting them on the pan, they got crispy so quickly. I guess we just have to practice making this.

Apple Torte with Breadcrumb-Hazelnut Crust

When I saw the cover of the October edition of BonAppetit magazine, I was so excited to try the recipe for this seemingly delicious apple torte. It's not exactly a pie, it uses breadcrumbs instead of the regular butter / flour / sugar combination, so it might be less dense and less sweet. The recipe could be found here:

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2010/10/apple_torte_with_breadcrumb_hazelnut_crust

I had so much trouble with this that I did not even bother taking a picture.

First of all, after toasting 8 cups of breadcrumbs for a little longer than recommended, they still didn't reduce down to 3 cups. After so much effort, the crust didn't taste that much different from the regular crust.

Cake Decorating Class

I like to learn, a new skills, new sports, anything. So I decided to take a cake decorating class at Jo-ann last month. I was very worried that since I don't have steady hands, my decoration would be such an epic disaster. I have to admit I was terrible, but after some practice, my skills improved steadily!

Week 1: decorating cookies
For the first time, I learned about the frosting/icing consistency, how to hold a bag, the different tips used for different decorations, etc.



Week 2: decorating a cake
For this session, we were supposed to bring a cake. During the class session, we would learn how to torte (split the cake into 2 layers) and fill it with some fillings like jam or more icing. I brought a small 9" cake into the class and my frosting did not set even after 20 minutes. You can tell that I have unsteady hands by looking at the uneven border piping in the picture here.



Week 3: decorating cupcakes
In this session, we learned how to make grass, pompom flowers, mum flowers, and shell borders.




Since I am an A-type who is competitive and does not like being at the bottom of the class, I decided to practice on another cake before going into the last class session. Here is the practice cake I did at home using some of the skills I had learned in the previous sessions.



Week 4: decorating a cake
In this last session, we were supposed to bring a completely frosted/iced cake, so that we could concentrate on the design during the class session. Since I was still pretty slow and I had to mix my frosting to the right consistency, I did not finish the cake during the class session. However, I was determined to finish it at home that day.



Detail view of the rosettes.

Pork Chop with Apple and Caramel Sauce

We went apple picking last weekend at Elegant Farmer at Mukwonago, WI. We picked about ten pounds worth of red delicious and spartan apples. Since my husband and I don't usually eat that much apple, I was thinking of creative, new ideas to incorporate apples in new forms other than apple pies. I have always known that apple goes well with pork, so I searched for a pork chop recipe using some apples. I found a pretty simple recipe at Allrecipes. This is my first attempt at making pork chop, so please be kind. :)

This is the first pork chop recipe I found that does not bread and fry the pork chop, which made me happy. I was eager to try it. Making the caramel sauce was the tricky part, because when the sauce was left a little bit too long on the fire, it crystalized and became hardened. Overall, I am very pleased with the result.

Lime Tart with Blackberries and Blueberries

As a foodie who likes to explore and experiment different food, I have been subscribing to Bon Appetit magazine for over one and a half year now. When I saw this beautiful tart with (again) berries in the June edition of the magazine, I knew I just had to try it. So I did. It was a lot of work to create the lime curd, but it was not too bad and the result was phenomenal. It looks professional. I love the taste and I got a lot of compliments when I brought it to a party. Needless to say, my husband enjoyed it too very much!

Blueberry Upside Down Cake

This is a missing post from this summer. I was so busy that I didn't really have time to post. This is the dessert I wanted to make as the last part of the Mexican fiesta dinner I made for my husband's birthday. When I saw this recipe in Mexican Everyday cookbook by Rick Bayless (my husband's favorite chef), I was thinking to myself, wow, this would be a really awesome dessert, using our favorite summer treat: blueberries! However, since I ran out of time, I made this the weekend after that. It is easy to make and very tasty. The only criticism that I have was that it needs a non-stick skillet that can also be put into the oven at 375 degrees. Enjoy the pictures after the jump.



Up-close and personal.



The big picture.

Wisconsin State Fair

Yesterday on Sunday, my husband and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair. We went with our good friend Craig and his date for the evening. :)

It was the first time for my husband and Craig to Wisconsin State Fair, although these two guys were born and raised in the state of Wisconsin! It was my second time to the fair, although my first time was not very eventful. Anyway, our trip to the fair was quite fun and such a food extravaganza.

Between both of us, we had 4 cups of 40-cent milk with the following flavor: rootbeer, strawberry, chocolate, and banana. They were all tasty but my favorite is chocolate and banana. We also shared a foot-long corn dog (freshly deep fried in front of us), a frozen banana with sprinkle (it was good but it was a little messy to eat). My husband also had a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly. If you are wondering how it is possible, they coated peanut butter and jelly in a dough and deep fried it.

Although it sounds like most of it consists of food, that's not all of it. We also rode on a ferris wheel and a gliding cart (whatever it is called).

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This blog is intended to capture the details of the cooking journey of me (with the help of my husband, sometimes) in my kitchen. We both like to cook different kinds of food, from Asian, American, Mexican. My favorite chef is Julia Child. She's iconic and one of the most influential chefs of all time. My husband's favorite chef is Rick Bayless. He is into Mexican cooking, so he influences what I cook too.