My only issue while making the cake was that my layers were very soft and ALL of them ended up falling apart while putting them on the platter. Luckily, I made a double batch of the frosting so the cake was glued together…until I stacked it to the third layer, then it kind of started…sliding. No matter, the cake was served in a bowl and was delicious!

Dark Chocolate Cake
(From http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dark-chocolate-cake-i/detail.aspx )

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Basic Pasta Dough
(from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-pasta/detail.aspx)

1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
2 tbsp water

1. In a bowl, mix flour and sat. Make a well in the flour, add  egg and mix. The dough should be stiff. If it is not, add water, 1 tbsp at a time.
2. Knead on a floured surface for 3 -4 minutes. Roll out to desired length and cut into desired sizes. I made squares.
3. Add to a pot of boiling water and cook until floating. Serve with your favorite sauce.

Red Pasta Sauce
1 sweet viadlia onion
6 cloves garlic
6 whole tomatoes, chopped and crushed
2 cans of tomato sauce, not flavored
fresh basil and orgeno
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

1. In a large pot, sautee onion and garlic until fragrent, just with a pinch of salt and pepper.
2. Add tomatoes and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the sauce, and spices and let simmer. The sauce will cook down over about a half hour. Make sure to taste it to make sure it is good. Add more desired spices if needed. Serve with your favorite pasta.
3. A

I got back from tour a few days before Christmas, and I still haven’t been able to cook anything. I have been working quite a lot, and after work at 2 in the morning, I don’t want to cook. I am lucky that Matt loves to cook to, so he has cooked a lot for me in the past few weeks. But I’ve been aching to make something. My problem is that Matt is a little picky. He has a long list of things that he doesn’t like. I always want to make something that he will eat to, even though he tells me to make whatever I want to.

A week ago or so, Matt and I were in Bed Bath and Beyond and I wanted to get some baking gadget. I settled on a cupcake plunger:

Cupcake Plunger

I really have been wanting to use it, and last night after watching Sherlock Holmes with Matt, my roommates and friend Shawn, I decided to make cupcakes. I dragged Matt to the store at 10 at night throwing ideas at him that I thought sounded good. I threw around chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting stuffing, or strawberry cupcake with strawberry stuffing, nothing sounded good to him.

I decided to pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting stuffing. I had actually tried a cupcake similar to that when in York, PA. They called it a pumpkin roll cupcake, so I went for it. I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t know how good until Matt ate 4, and Neil and Maureen had 2 each. I’ve always said, you know something you make is delicious when everyone goes back for thirds. I only had one myself, but that was because I wasn’t feeling to well (it’s worse now, but lets not talk about that). There are only 3 cupcakes left out of the dozen batch, I’d say it is a success!

Don't you want one?

Pumpkin Cupcake
(from http://southernfood.about.com/od/pumpkins/r/bl40104c.htm)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten until frothy
1 cup mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs. Blend in mashed pumpkin.
3. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth after each addition; stir in chopped walnuts or pecans. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured or paper-lined muffin pan cups. Fill about 2/3 full.
4.  Bake at 375° for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Let cupcakes cool, prepare cream cheese frosting, plunge the middle of cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 – 8 oz block cream cheese
1/2 cp powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg

1. Cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. Insert into pumpkin cupcakes or spread on your favorite treat.

Sunday night I was craving a margarita and I discovered what I thought was a Mexican place 5 mins away from our hotel. It turned out to be more of a Creole place, and google maps just lied to me, but we ate there anyway. I got some crawfish mac and cheese. It was a pretty simple baked macaroni, but I loved it. You could tell it wasn’t boxed, that it had been home made. I ate all of it and never looked back. Really, the only problem with that place was that it was VERY expensive, as in I paid $10 for a mixed drink expensive. But it was worth it, it was the start to a very fun night.

We’re in York, PA for a couple of days, and I’m pretty psyced to see all of the cool places we can eat while we’re here. I love traveling.

I decided to go out on a limb and try something different, something that I would normally be afraid of. They had different dinner boxes that were full of different items. I decided on a box that came with terakyi salmon, tempora, an inside out California roll, orange, rice, salad AND miso soup. That’s a lot of food, and the box only cost $17. The first thing I tried in the box was the salmon. It was sweet and just fell apart so easily. It was like no other salmon I had ever tried. If I could box it up and take it with me everywhere, I would. Next I tried the tempora. It came with 4 pieces, I had 2 shrimp, one carrot (deep fried carrot? oh yes) and one onion ring. I had never had tempora before and was surprised at how light the breading was. Normally fried food for me is very heavy and fills me up very quickly, but not this. The carrot was a welcome surprise because it tasted very good. The California roll was my second piece of sushi I had ever tried in my life. Sushi has always scared me because of the raw fish, but California rolls don’t have fish, they have avacodo and cream cheese. I LOVED it. They had so much flavor in the little bits that I couldn’t stop eating.We were going to get the mango roll for dessert, but we were both so full that we just couldn’t. I hope I can go there one more time before we get on the road, just to get the mango roll!

The food itself isn’t bad, but it isn’t amazing either. I’ve never been a fan of frozen boxed meals because I grew up on all home cooked from scratch meals. But, with a limited amount supplies I had to choose from frozen or whatever I can walk to around the hotel, which isn’t much. It was very fast and easy to make. My biggest problem, besides the portion (which may just be me, I can eat a lot!) was the fact that it wasn’t very garlic-y. If you’ve kept up on this blog, you know my love of garlic. If I had thought ahead, I would have bought some garlic and added it.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

8 oz cream cheese
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
1 cp powdered sugar
1 tsp cimmamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1. Beat cheese until creamy.
2. Mix in pumpkin, sugar, and spices and beat until smooth. Refridgerate until needed, dip grahm crackers in it!