Our dear friend Cricket’s birthday was last week, and of course Rebecca and I signed up to make the cake. OK, well I signed Rebecca and I up to make this cake.

I wanted to make PW’s chocolate sheet cake, but some research proved that we made that for her birthday last year! Luckily, PW also had another recipe to try.

Milky Way cake. Despite the fact that I didn’t really know what a milky way contained, I was more than excited to make the cake. 11 candy bars? Sign me up.

Here’s the recipe.

11 whole Milky Way Bars (regular Size), Divided Use
3 sticks Margarine, Divided Use (or butter, if you’re a snob)
2-½ cups All-purpose Flour
½ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Baking Soda
½ cups Buttermilk
3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract, Divided
2 cups Sugar
4 whole Eggs
2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 dash Salt
½ cups Milk (more If Needed)
1 cup Finely Chopped Pecans

We went to Ralph’s, where I found 10 for $10 fun packs of Milky Ways. This led to Becca and I (mostly me) frantically doing math in the check line to make sure we had enough ounces of Milky. The Ralph’s woman proceeded to laugh at Rebecca and I the entire check out time.

Turns out, I didn’t get enough – I never claimed to be a mathematician. I did go to Emerson, after all. Never fear, as we had some leftover Snickers bars from Megan’s birthday party. I sat for 10 minutes unwrapping all the fun sized Milky Ways. I did not anticipate the extra waste plastic wrappers. Whoops.

Delicious. And I was about to find out just what was in a Milky Way.

Double boil eight Milky Way bars, or 25 and a half fun sized Milky Way bars, and a stick of margarine, slash butter if you don’t believe in margarine.

Ahh, so this is what is in a Milky Way – nougat, and caramel, and chocolate! I think I like Milky Ways!

Meanwhile, cream together your butter and sugar.

Meanwhile, cream together the sugar and some butter, and then add one egg at a time.

Then add the buttermilk mixture (see the recipe for more depth instructions) and add the flour.

Now it’s time for Milky Ways.

Add your Milky Way/butter mixture.

Mix well.

Delicious.

Pour it out, spread it out…

Spread it, spread it, spread it…stick in the oven.

Then you need to unwrap some more Milky Ways, and your Snickers.

So melt your chocolate and then add some powdered sugar.

Add your pecans.

And, yep, you guessed it…

Serve to hungry friends. They’ll thank you. Then, bring the leftovers to work, and your co-workers will love you forever!

As part of our general awareness of football season, Jennie and I have been thinking about football party snacks that we don’t like very much and trying to find ways of making them more delicious. Jennie showed us her seven layer dip, and I set my sights on a cheese ball that someone might actually want to eat.

Cheese balls have always puzzled me. They are made up of things I love — cheese, nuts, some spices — but somehow they always come out tasting wrong. My solution (per usual) was goat cheese. I haven’t found many things that can’t be improved with goat cheese, and this was no exception. For good measure, though, I also added my other favorite recipe secret ingredient: caramelized onions.

In the end, I put together a cheese ball with goat cheese, chives, rosemary, caramelized onion, and honey.

Then I covered it in toasted pine nuts.

You could honestly eat it right away, but in order to set it in an actual ball, you really should put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. We managed to wait about an hour and 10 minutes.

So, stick it in the fridge and go watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother with some friends. When you suddenly remember that a delicious cheese ball is waiting for you, serve it with some crackers and a little attitude like my friend Zak, here.

See the recipe.

My latest Cucina Fresca assignment was to come up with a simple egg-based casserole that could be adapted to use whatever vegetables, herbs, or cheese you might have lying around the house. As usual, I went a little too far and instead came up with a decadent frittata recipe.

The result was rich, creamy, and very filling. I think you really can’t go wrong combining sweet potato, onion, garlic, cheese sauce, eggs and bread.

I know words like cheese sauce might scare some of you (or it may delight you), but this recipe is actually not as unhealthy as it sounds. I made this batch with fat free, unsweetened almond milk. I only used 1/2 cup of grated cheese and 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp white flour for the roux. This will serve 4 to 6 people, so that’s a nominal amount of cheese and butter per serving. Adding the spices (fresh rosemary and thyme) to the cheese sauce created a richer flavor without upping the fat or salt content.

The recipe also calls for bread cubes. I used a hearty whole grain bread from the Costco bakery, and I highly recommend using something similar. Bland pre-sliced white bread just wouldn’t be as delicious. The bread’s primary function in this recipe is to soak up the egg and cheese goodness, but it also adds some good texture and fiber.

I didn’t test it out, but if you really want to get decadent, I think you could substitute breakfast sausage and get fantastic results.

Voila! Cut into 4 pieces for a full meal at breakfast or dinner! Or cut into sixths and serve with a side of fruit or salad!

Full recipe here

A few weeks back I had a coworker who’s birthday snuck up on me. And since I didn’t have much time, I had to not-so-subtly just ask him what his favorite cake was.

Then I did something I almost never do. And, now that the cake was delicious and weeks ago, I can now admit. I just picked the first recipe that came up on a Google search.

It’s not like I didn’t make sure it was a good recipe. It was – it was from Alton! Alton Brown doesn’t lie. He makes delicious food, and has taught me so much about cooking. I’ve never made a bad Alton recipe! Although, I’ve made several snotty Alton recipes. Anyways, not the point, we’ll get to that.

It can be hard to find a recipe you want to use. I usually look at several options and compare, or adapt, as necessary. It’s never as quick as, “This looks good.” Luckily Alton doesn’t let you down, and the recipe was awesome.

Shred a bunch of carrot.  I did not peel them. I am rogue.

Add your dry ingredients. You mix your wet ingredients separately. Alton wants you to do it in a food processor. My food processor is not that big, and a little broken, so I did it in the mixer. I tried to drizzle the oil in, as well, per the recipe, but it really didn’t happen. Alton, I’m sorry, but it’s too much! Too much! Also: “Reduce the heat to 325 degrees F and bake for another 20 minutes or until the cake reaches 205 to 210 degrees F in the center.” OK, Alton. I did this. The cake was awesome. But is that really a necessary step? Remember to check the cake is rough, let alone remembering to turn it down. But, I digress.

Add ingredients, wet and dry.

It should look something like this.

Bring to work, and make everyone eat the whole thing. Celebrate a birthday with it!

So there you go – I tried something new (first carrot cake) and learned how to plan less. Sometimes, less is more! How about you? How much planning do you do for your baked goods?

A few months back, during one of our video conferences, I got it in my mind that I wanted to make something with lentils. I didn’t care what it was, I just wanted to try lentils. It was agreed that I’d make them, since Corelyn doesn’t love lentils like I weirdly do.

And so, enter a turkey lentil wrap. Because we’ve also been trying to have more lunch items up here. Things that we could make for lunch that aren’t just leftovers. A spin on my favorite – turkey and cheese – that leaves you full, and happy because you’ve just had vegetables, too!

And lentils. And rice. Adapt as your crazy life schedule allows.

Cast of characters: lentils, brown jasmine rice, turkey, cucumber, carrot, mint, lime, garlic, and spices.

I used these lentils. They were the only ones I could find, but word on the street is there are lots of types of lentils.

And some rice. I used a half cup of lentils and a half cup of rice, and I had leftovers. But you can make multiple wraps for the week, if you’d like!

Rinse your lentils. And your rice. Cook to the directions on the respective bags. This is the longest part of the process, and I encourage you to use this time to cut veggies, make dinner, or use leftover lentils/rice from other meals to save yourself time!

Cut up some garlic. This if for your mint sauce. I used mint sauce to “spice” up the wrap, but you can use whatever sauce/condiment you like best!

Mint sauce ingredients: garlic, salt, cayenne, cumin, paprika.

Mint. Always need some mint.

Mix all of that with about a cup of yogurt and add your mint.

Add mint to taste (recipe to come, don’t worry.)

Cut up your vegetables: I used cucumbers, bell pepper, and carrots.

Take a wrap. I used whole wheat ones.

Spread on some mint sauce.

Add whatever veggies you want.

Add your rice and your lentils.

Add some turkey.

Wrap it up, and wrap in tin foil. Bring to work for lunch! Or eat at home when you’re sick (which is what I did!)