It's Spring! Time for Coconut Cake!

How can this not be calling your name...? It's super easy too! I love this cake or many reasons, the #1 is that its so tasty and easy to make. This is such a big deal to me because 3 years ago I made Alton Brown's Coconut Cake recipe. Yes, it was good but all the time consuming ingredient prep made it a big F in my book. It took me like 2 hours to get everything together not to mention I saved time by buying coconut infused vodka. This recipe is way better and for people that have a texture problem with coconut still get the flavor AND can push the coconut topping off the cake if they feel like it (That would be me on occasion btw lol). Personally I have made this my go to cake recipe because it really is best after 2-3 days, and I NEVER eat anything after 3 days, obviously this cake is an exception. AMAZING and what better time to make this than for Easter. 

Warning: You must keep this in the fridge when not consuming/inhaling it because of the coconut topping.

Apologies!

I'm so sorry I haven't been updating at all lately! I haven't abandoned my food blog I just have two major parts of my life coming up (my Papa Louie is dying ((this is my first)) and I'm finishing up my internship and I have a billion papers to write and it's all due April 1. I have been cooking and taking pictures so once I am done April 15 you will see so much more of me, I'll drive you crazy. I have been goofing around with blind baking (I came up with this lol) which is not using a recipe and not knowing what to use and add together and taking a guess at the degrees and time LOL. Its been terribly funny and very fail-tastic. I had one good cake and it was a box mix.
I see a few of you have been frequently checking back, don't give up! Also I need to get a new camera, my 8 yr old one's cord has live wires sticking out of it and I have to shift it around for it to connect to the computer. I guess it's time I got a new one anyway.... I hate change!!!!!
To make all of you out there chuckle, I bought this adorable pastel colored easter egg holding ferris wheel. What a long description, but hey, it's what it is! I boiled up 8 eggs and then proceeded to put one randomly on to see if it would actually hold my egg and as I released it I heard Jon holler "NO YOU NEED A COUNTER WEIGHT" and reaching for me. Which had me with a frowny face at him and what I realized just happened. The darn egg flopped right out and smashed the table haha. So I, the dumb bunny, decided it was my fault and not the ferris wheel's, and I placed two eggs on the bottom two holders and held still to make sure I didn't disturb them too much. Well They just flipped and cracked. I realize now it was just a decoration or to hold fake eggs in. WASTE OF MONEY :[

Sweet Orange Thyme oil/butter

I have no pictures because this was really a rather ugly looking finished piece but it is something that anyone can change a combo on and do them selves and incorporate it into anything. I just got home from a LONG weekend in RI to see my grandpa (he is dying from a 6mm aneurysm in his heart, colon cancer and Alzheimer.) Its a very sad thing watching a loved one waste away so when I got home last night all I wanted was tea and some plain scones so I could just zone out. I love scones but I also love toppings for scones, I especially love clotted cream... But I wanted something different today on my scones I wanted something different but something I could make and not worry about. I used citrus and fresh herbs that I have on hand. I had an orange and a bunch of thyme. So I pulled out my mini deep frier and poured in 1/3 cup oil and let it warm up to less than
225 F <---- this is the lowest marked setting on my fryer it goes all the way to zero so I just let it sit at what I believed was 200 F. I zested the orange into the oil and added 7 tiny thyme leaves ( I wanted just a hint of thyme with this) and I let it sit and infuse with the heat for 35 minutes. It doesn't bubble or anything so it was very fragrant through the house. I shut off the fryer and poured the infusion into a mason jar that had 1/3 butter, 1/2 vanilla bean pod seeded, and 4 tbsp sugar in it and let it melt together and then I stuck it in the fridge. Using butter to infuse really leaves the question if it will brown and if it does that will add a nutty taste and I didn't want that. So I let the butter melt on its own with the hot oil and the let it solidify in the fridge. Before putting the mix in the fridge give it a taste see if you want to add more butter or sugar to yours. You could also play with lemon and thyme/basil/sage and use it as a wonderful infusion to pour on fish. There are alot of possibilities when making infusions with your deep fryer. Since it only cost $30 I don't mind goofing around with it even if it leaves flavors behind. My large deep fryer I do mind and that's for meat only.
I took my butter oil spread and used it on my cream scones and it was delicious outside with the 50F weather we have outside especially with hot tea. It feels like spring I needed a sweet and savory snack.
I hope some of you take this idea and try something at home as long as you keep the oil on a low heat and let it infuse slowly (You will be happy with the results and the house will smell great.

Pasta E Fagioli

This for me is a bunch of fun to make and I usually have everything on hand for it, ready to go. This week has been high and low in temperature it's making me crazy, if Spring is coming it needs to stay. I'd really like to not have to wear my winter coat in the morning because its too cold, then have it be so warm I have to take my sweater off in the car besides not having my jacket on. Seriously Spring. Stop. This is my go between soup for Winter and Spring.

The CLEANEST meatloaf ever

Ha I know It's not on a plate! Mainly because it usually doesn't make it off the baking sheet lol! We pick at it all night long, its hilarious how Jon and I act like 6 year old's with food. SOOOOO how can meatloaf NOT be messy you ask? I can feel your disbelief radiating off my laptop screen right now.

Go into your kitchen and grab that handy dandy gallon sized zip lock bag and dump all the ingredients into it. 

Beef was on sale this week so I went nuts and bought 8 lbs of it and froze most of it.

On a side note just to share the strange happening. On my way home from work tonight (it had been dark for almost 2 hours) something pooped on my windshield. I say something because I am pretty positive that once the sun goes down, birds sleep. I think for the first and probably last time in my life a bat pooped on my car. 

Curried Breaded Chicken

Trying to take a healthy approach for the next month we sort of depended on take out for awhile with this internship going on. Chicken has been our go to ingredient for dinners lately and this one came out amazing for looking so plain Jane! Its so fragrant too! We just got about 6 inches of snow which caused schools to be closed yesterday :[ So I had a day of fun meal planning and came up with an absurd  recipe using my rice cooker for... meat. >> Not so sure how it will come out but I think it will be somewhat like a pressure cooker only slower and fill the apartment with wonderful smells.

Super easy stromboli

This is the most delicious stromboli and its so easy to make. Don't pass this up when you have some kind of event coming up. This is the kind that you slice and walk away with it, not the "lets make it look pretty on a plate" meal. BIG THANKS to Almost Bourdain's Ellie for putting me on her awesome site for shout outs!

Got to get a new camera I just realized one of the cats chewed the wire a bit so now I have to strategically wiggle the wire around until it connects on the computer : / got a bunch of recipes done and lined up to post so check back a few time this week :D

Roasted Spaghetti Squash

So I have been absent lately and also have been strapped for cash and the things I have been making are literally chicken breast with salt and pepper cooked in butter. Not much use for this blog which is for experimenting :/ I also started my Internship (third time grrr...) and have been busy and very tired so yea, instant mashed potatoes have been my buddy lately lol.

Broken Smoothie :(

Ugh a failure and a waste of food. We all hate it when it happens and yet we try to salvage the pieces. This morning I went to make a fruit smoothie for Jon and I because it was about time we both had a boost of fruit in our diets and we could definitely use the vitamins we get from a finished product. I have no pictures but I thought to share how I make my smoothies 2 different ways in the morning. NOW THAT MY BLENDER IS BROKEN (stupid clear plastic that keeps the blades in place broke while pureeing and everything instantly seeped through to the motor lol, need to see if the local Kitchen Store holds a replacement top because the clunky part of it is fine.)

Roasted Chicken with veggies

Hell yeah. I make a damn good roasted chicken, if I do say so myself. I have one of those 6th senses for chicken and beef. I always cook it perfectly and tastily. So Christmas came and went then New Years with even more left overs which were happily eaten for the next two days. Then I started my internship and celebrating Jon's 30th Birthday. So I ended up with left over take outs and sandwhiches for the last week or so. Not much has been made and I did get a HUGE deep frier. Fried fish and candy bars here I come~! But here I had a chicken that I defrosted because we are about to get 6 inches of snow here so I thought this would be nice.