MMM Cake!

For Idyllic Ideas' birthday, I ordered her something that she'd been drooling over for a while, but never actually ordered. I was struggling with an idea, and also running out of time (even though I had tons of notice) so I came up with a brilliant plan...

Introducing one of the coolest new toys to enter my household since...well...ever! Is it a cookie? Is it cake? It's both! It is the Cookie Cake Pan!!!

According to the recipe on the box, this is what you will look like when it is all done:

It will work with any type of cake though. We made a lemon pound cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting on the inside. Idyllic did a great job while I was half sprawled out on the couch with ice on my head, and face due to my concussion and sore jaw. Next time I decide it would be fun to see what it would be like to be a brick wall, and get bull dozed over, will someone remind me it WASN'T that much fun!

I will have to get Idyllic Ideas to email me the finished product, but this is what it looks like coming right out of the pan.

Hooray for cookies. cakes, and now best of all, COOKIE CAKES!!! I think this little movie could also apply for my new friends the cookie cakes. Don't you?!

Cooking Mood

I do love to cook. That is no secret, nor has it ever been. I have recently been very very lazy and not really made anything for a long time. I have eaten, don't mistake that, my meals have just been parents/sammiches/Shameonyou21's house/restaurants/VERY BAD Red Rooster fried chicken and waffle restaurants.

No worries though! I think I have found my passion again over this last week! I made homemade scones with homemade honey butter one Sunday. I came home from work one day last week, and all of a sudden had the desire to make homemade broccoli beef. So I went to walmart, bought the groceries, came home and made it! I also threw in some homemade ham fried rice for good measure!

The night before last, I asked my new roommate around midnight----OH YEAH, I forgot another new event for my list! I got a new roommate! Idyllic Ideas finally moved in! There goes all of my future roommate bashing posts though. I know how much you all believe that too! ANYWAY, I asked her what she wanted me to make for dinner the next day. She came up with the kabobs idea.

I made both chicken kabobs and steak kabobs. I bugged Shameonyou21 at 12:30 a.m. over text message for some suggestions. I marinated the chicken in my usual soy sauce/7-up marinade starting the next morning. I did not marinate the steak, but just brushed the finished kabobs with garlic butter before cooking. Idyllic Ideas really wanted to add the fruit of the devil (pineapple) to her kabobs, so I made sure those stayed far away from my kabobs (even though those that ate them said they liked them)!

I really wanted to BBQ the skewers, but somehow, my small charcoal grill disappeared at my parents' house, so I settled for baking them instead. I guess they turned out alright...in fact, they were pretty freaking fabulous!!!

My neighbor made us dinner tonight since I have basically fed her over the last month off and on! Anyone got any other ideas while I am on a roll? You all might want to try and take advantage this roll if you know what's good for you--mmm food...good...

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Here is THE BEST spinach artichoke dip EVER. This is the original recipe, but instead of buying all of the different cheeses, I bought the six cheese blend that comes already shredded in a bag. One of those small bags is two full cups of cheese, so you will have a little extra to do with whatever you want. I may have cooked it a tiny bit longer than the recipe says to also, but I doubled this. Yield is about 10-12 for the single recipe. I have made it both ways with putting the cheese on the top, and just putting it inside the mixture, and I like the inside way best. On the top makes a cheese layer that is hard to dip the chip through. Let me know if you make it and how it turns out for ya. OR, you can invite me over and we can make it together!!!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced 1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic salt salt and pepper to taste 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a small baking dish.
2.	In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, garlic, basil, garlic salt, salt and pepper. Gently stir in artichoke hearts and spinach.
3.	Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned.

At Long Last

OK, so being that it is the last day of the month, I figured I would get a quick post in!!! I know I have fallen off the wagon this month, but I promise, I will try to write more BS posts to keep them coming!!! May just hasn't been very eventful, or very fun.

Anyway, I thought I would post a couple of pics I took of my experiment with my Strawberry Mango Goodness. My roommate Nats was in charge of Bunco this month, and she asked me to make something.

My version of the Strawberry Mango Angel Food Cake Trifle

Key ingredients include:

• Strawberries
• Mangoes
• Angel Food Cake
• Danish Dessert Strawberry Fruit Sauce/Pie Glaze
• Vanilla Pudding (thinned out more than the package directions)

The Funny thing is that is just doesn't look as pretty when it comes OUT of the trifle bowl!


I promise it was really good despite this picture! I also made a freakishly yummy Spinach Artichoke Dip, but I forgot to take a picture, so I will just have to post the recipe or something another time and you'll have to trust me on the delicious-ness of it.

Strawberry Mango Goodness

While I try to get the pictures organized, and uploaded, I thought I would do a little restaurant review. The restaurant is called World Famous and it is located right on the beach in San Diego, California. Their menu changes pretty much daily, or at least they print out a new menu every day...(you know that because the date is printed at the top of each menu). Shameonyou21 and Randoval found this place a couple of years ago when they were staying here, and took a walk on the boardwalk. A short ten minute walk along the beach's boardwalk and you are there. We went there Thursday night for dinner, and then we loved it so much, we went back the night we returned to San Diego a week and a half later!

This, my friends, is my strawberry mango goodness! The actual name is Strawberry Mango Angel Food Trifle! It has giant spears of mango in the glass along the sides, a strawberry and a vanilla custard sauce (creme anglaise), chunks of angel food cake, and whipped cream and strawberries. All I have to say about this is...OH! MY! This made dinner oh so much better!

The best part about this restaurant some would say is the view. While you can't normally beat that, I would have to say that my strawberry mango goodness is almost tied with something else on the menu. What is it you ask??? It is the most rich and yummy lobster bisque (basically a cream of lobster soup) I have had since school! The cruise ship had lobster bisque offered one night, and it didn't even come close to this one. It even had some lobster bits in it! You all know how much I love me some lobster bits!!!

We joked about asking the waitress if the soup comes with free refills, so I actually asked her. She giggled, then leaned down and asked me what is was I said! I repeated my question,

"So the lobster bisque comes with free refills right?!"

She kinda chuckled again, then took my bowl (which I wasn't completely done with cause I wanted to use the bread to lick it clean) and said, "Oh it is so rich you would get sick if you ate another bowl."

As she walked away I felt my eyes welling up with tears because I wasn't done, and because she really never answered my question. I REALLY did want another bowl! It wasn't like there was a full cup of soup. I bet there wasn't even quite a half of a cup in there! JERK WAITRESS!

The second time we went, we couldn't decide what entree we wanted, so we tried all the appetizers, some delectable lobster bisque, and of course some strawberry mango goodness! I think the appetizers, and those other two dishes are the best things on the menu (from what we tried anyway).

What we tried:

• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms--These are better when you squeeze a little lemon on them, rather than eating them plain!
• Crunchy Jumbo Shrimp--Essentially these are a coconut shrimp. The sweet ancho chili sauce was tasty also!
• Lobster Spring Rolls--Lobster bits (mmm lobster bits) in a spring roll with a spicy mango jalapeno sauce...mmm!
• Big Island Ahi Tuna--If you like sushi, this is the appetizer for you! Chunks of tuna on sticky rice with a little sweet/spicy sauce drizzle!
• Peppered Seared Yellow Fish Tuna--A little too peppery in some spots (I know shocker cause I put pepper on EVERYTHING), but overall very good and it was cooked to perfection. The hot mustard sauce went perfectly with it also!
• Shrimp San Miguel--Shameonyou21 said she liked it, but the sherry flavor took over a little bit from the overall taste.
• Capellini California--Di Di didn't have much to say about this because she was too busy eating it! I tasted some and it has a very fresh flavor. No seafood in it, which was perfect for her!
• Steak and Sea Scallops--I don't like scallops very much. To me they are just ooey gooey fish balls. They have a very fishy flavor and the texture is rubbery. Randoval didn't love this, because I think the steak came with carmelized red onions and so it was a little sweeter than he likes his meat.
• Pacific Clam Chowder--I liked this very much, but once you've tasted fresh clam chowder somewhere on the coast, there isn't much you can do to doll it up. I just liked the lobster bisque BETTER!

Anyway, I am only waiting on Di Di and Shameonyou21 to get me CD's with their pictures. Let's face it...we were all going to share pictures, so I let them take the most. Anyway, in the mean time, Shameonyou21 has posted a little synopsis with some pics on her blog, so go check it out while you are waiting for me to get the CD's to give you the whole trip!

Holiday Happenings

I have been a very bad girl. Bad me, bad! Anyway, just before Christmas my family all traveled to Las Vegas for the BYU vs UCLA Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl (a football game). My cousin obtained about 40 tickets in the main endzone section of the UNLV football stadium. All of them were taken up by family and friends. I think including the kids, there were about 27ish family members at the game who traveled from various places in Utah and Nevada. Despite the cold weather, and the near loss by my BYU Cougars, we had a ton of fun...

After we got home (no thanks to two hour flight delays, but better than driving in black ice conditions on I-15), all of my siblings happened to stay over at my parents house on Christmas Eve. We had a huge dinner consisting of Tenderloin Steaks, Salmon, Shrimp, Crab Dip, 7 Layer Dip, Clam Chowder and a Veggie Tray (it was ALMOST as huge as the dinner they have for the Super Bowl...[another football game, only on a professional level])!!! We opened pajamas, and woke up early thanks to two crying babies, two young boys excited for Santa, and my sissy flopping around on the air mattress!

Thanks to the many service men and women for this!!! It covered the entire field!!!

Brooklynn was SO bundled up, she couldn't even move her arms!

Baby Brooklynn (left) and Baby Boston (right)

Baby Boston helping Grandpa open his present!

Cooper and Easton got Matching Cars Pajamas. They couldn't wait to open the tent/sleeping bags that went with them either!

Hope all your Holidays went well...I promise to post more often in 2008!