food separation from a heart sick person

  
For years this recipe stared me in the face. I’d open the Bon Appetit issue to it and put it in my little cookbook holder stand thinking if I saw it, some day I’d get inspired early enough to get all components made and chilled in due time.

The picture you see above is just one reconfiguration of this Deconstructed Black Forest Cake. Much as I adore various pairings of sandwich material, I also love the idea that each bite of this cake can be a different combo of the cake, chocolate pudding, whipped cream, red wine cherries, and…all kept properly hydrated by the shot of kirsch:

  
Making this became a fantasy. One of those “some day” things I didn’t think I’d ever actually get around to.
Then I was dating someone and I knew I was into him because I started fantasizing about what I’d cook him. This was a likely suspect for pleasing what I knew of his tastebuds.
And then that prospect didn’t work out. As in, I never even got the chance to ply him with my womanly cake wiles. 
In a spate of “fuck that I don’t need ANYONE to cook FOR” the fantasy of making this became reality one Friday night when I got home earlier than expected.
I am all I need.
Except for sex. I could use a male for that but he isn’t here (as in doesn’t exist) at the moment.
But fuck it. I have cake and wine and a career (my true lover) not to mention my family and friends and stuff so I shall survive. And I have cake.

I cut my cake with a star cookie cutter because I am a superstar. Hehehe. As in “don’t you remember you told me you love me baby”. Except I was not that fond of the fellow. It never came even remotely close to the L word. Cause that is REAL scary. Hell, I have a hard time giving someone a second date.
Problem is, it is rare I start to think anyone is worth a romantic thought so when I do start to be even remotely interested in someone I take things too hard when they don’t turn out as I’d wish.

UGH.
And UGH.
And UGH FUCK!
And someday my cake and wine loving prince will come.

I’m gonna get a cat.

Fuck this cake is worth it. 

Also no more writing recipes when high on no sleep/sugar/wine.

Enjoy.

Deconstructed Black Forest Cake adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe

For cake:
1/4 cup butter
6 Tbsp. light brown sugar
1/2 beaten egg
1 1/2 Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
scant 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/16 tsp salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla
6 Tbsp. sifted cake flour
2 Tbsp. and 2 tsp. yogurt (origial recipe calls for sour cream
3 Tbsp. hot coffee
For chocolate fudge pots:
1 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli’s)
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (recipe calls for heavy whipping cream)
pinch salt
1 1/2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. sugar
For sauce:
1 cup frozen dark sweet cherries
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. sugarplus a pinch more
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. dry red wine (I had a pinot noir on hand)
To finish:
whipped cream (I used Reddi-whip_
A shot of kirsch
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Create an approximately 35-square inch baking pan. I did this by taking foil and pressing it into half an 8X8 pan. Butter or use nonstick spray to grease. Beat the butter in an electric mixer until smooth. Toss in the sugar and egg and beat until light and fluffy. Hurl in the cocoa, baking soda, salt and vanilla and incorporate. Blend in the half the flour then half the yogurt and repeat. Gradually blend in coffee until smooth. Add to the pan and bake about 25 minutes, until you put a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean. Let cool on rack and then chill until cold. Bon Appetit says 4 hours but I sped this up with my freezer.
For fudge pots:
Preheat oven to 325 F. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Bring half and half and salt just to a oil then pour over chocolate and whisk it until all is nice and smooth. In another bowl whisk the yolks and sugar. Slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture. Put back into pot over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly until somewhat thickened, about 5 minutes. Don’t let it boil. Distribute into 5 ramekins (1/4 cup each) and put ramekins into a deep pan. Add water to into deep pan halfway up the sides of ramekins. Cover the whole shebang with foil and bake until set, between 35 and 40 minutes. Take ramekins out of pot. Cool 15 minutes then let chill in fridge, uncovered until cold (3 hours?).
For sauce:
Put cherries (unthawed) and sugar in a small pan and stir over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add wine and stir and simmer until ever so slightly thickened. Strain over a bowl. Pour juices back into pot and put cherries in a bowl. Boil the juices until reduced to about 2 Tbsp. then pour over cherries and chill.
To serve, slice (or get fancy with cookie cutters) the cake. Each person gets some cake, a pudding, a spoonful of cherries n sauce, a bit of whipped cream and a shot of kirsch. Whee! Yah. Since I made this for me I ate a huge portion of cake and sauce, one pudding, a whole container of whipped cream and, well, a shot of kirsch was enough. But then I had also indulged on extra wine.

It is a pudding

I figured I had better give you a non-British-sense-of-the-word pudding. I’d baited you with my two non-pudding puddings.
And then I thought of making a more jello-mold type pudding. My experiments substituting agar for gelatin in fruit jello molds are pretty:

Pretty, but not yet perfected. You’ll note I didn’t unmold that molded agar-jello. There’s a good reason for that.

Then I remembered this recipe I tried from that vixen Katie and combined both my agar n fruit experiments to create a recipe I am going to call more or less: My own.

My own pudding.

Sort of. It is thick, anyway. And sweet. But it is nothing like that gelatinous goop spooned forth from the Jello packs.

That color is all-natural y’all! And it’s hard to see but there are voluptuous cherries in this:

Voluptuous fruit. Yah.

My own chocolate cherry pudding(inspired by Chocolate Covered Katie, any old jello recipe, and a desire to have a healthy-ish and less sickeningly sweet form of these because I am the only one who likes the cordial filling anyway)
1 1/3 cups unsweetened chocolate almond milk
1 heaping Tbsp. agar
1 heaping cup of frozen sweet pitted cherries
Five-ish drops of cocoa stevia( thanks Averie!) plus any more sweetener of choice
1/2 tsp. almond extract

Mix agar and milk in a small saucepan and let sit for about five minutes. Then bring to a boil, reduce heat and let it simmer until the agar is dissolved. That is more or less the same instructions on the package of agar flakes, and about the same as listed in this post by mzzzz Katie.
Let that shiz-nit cool in the fridge and don’t worry about it separating.
Add all but 8-10 cherries, plus remaining ingredients and use an immersion blender to blend the heck out of it. Divide cherries between a couple of ramekins then add pudding.
Admire the purple hue. Devour voluptuously, whatever that means to you.

Too busy for fancy

Two reasons to make this recipe:
1)Time
2)The name

Play rehearsals are heating up! A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens in two weeks and many of my nights are in el teatro.

I would love to get all fancy and make things requiring multiple bowls and saucepans.

Hell, I even would loved to get all pretty like Katie did and make a parfait with this cherry oatmeal recipe, which requires a rest in the fridge was waiting for me to complete it when I got home and I was not in the mood to layer. I was in the mood to gobble.

The name? Well I’m in a pretty rock n roll production of Midsummer so…
So if you have a busy night ahead, start this recipe for Cherry Bomb Oatmeal
ahead. Get home and finish then eat. Be. A. Rock. Star.

And come see Midsummer! For tickets:
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/243225, or by calling the studio directly at 323-601-5310
And the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/238549702925183/

Shakes then and now

Months ago I went through a fruit shake phase. One of the prettier shots of those shakes is this:

Note the pink martini glass. I purchased it as a graduation present for myself and happily drink everything from shakes to Gatorade to real cocktails from it when I wanna get festive by myself.
Also note the flowers. More red roses. I love those.
Now last week I suddenly craved a fruit concoction but the picture was taken after I’d started in on the shake and I was drinking out of a slightly less fancy glass and there were no roses:

So less pretty but equally yummy. And now my approximate shake recipe:
Equal parts frozen fruit(blueberries and cherries are favorites) and vanilla frozen concoction of your choice-ice cream, frozen yogurt, rice cream, they all work. I used an ice milk with a touch of maple in it. Add some vanilla protein powder if you like and if you like it really sweet like me add more sweetener to taste. Yes I added equal. I know it’s bad but hey, I at least kicked my diet soda habit…Now the shake secret is to also add some extract. Vanilla and almond are equally exceptional. If you have them some vanilla bean is magical. Add enough almond milk to make it as thin or thick as you like. Blend it all up with an immersion blender if you hate washing blender canisters like me and drink that goodness on up.