Back and Better than Ever!

You waited for it.

You hinted that you wanted some more...

And I'm back! 

Two plus years later - here I am. 

Still hungry, still running, and as always... in love with food, Vincent, and our pups Alpine and Pepper.

A few things have changed, though. I suppose I never gave myself an exit post in 2011 when I was accepted in the LSU Shreveport PA program, but as you can see I've been a little busy since then. To make a long story short you'll be happy to know that Vincent and I recently got married (yayyyy!) I am also a certified Physician Assistant, which is a journey that I've been on for some time now. We live in Mandeville, Louisiana and I am currently working in Urgent Care nearby. I will begin a full time position in the Emergency Department at a local hospital next month. I think it's safe to keep my Blog title because I'm sure there will still be some Lights, Sirens, and Gumbo

:)

We have only been back from our honeymoon for 2 days. The first day we were welcomed with open arms by all of our parents, a champagne toast, and lunch at Zea's - our local favorite. Other than Bistro Byronz, which I'm obsessed with. They were closed. Anyway - that evening we reported to Mimi and Papa's house for shrimp gumbo - YUMMM. I mean hello, is this a good time to talk about food, or what? Not to mention that I just debarked a cruise ship where I was a total glutton for the last week. Ha! It wasn't until last night that I finally cooked something for us to eat, and I have to say... for our first home made meal as married people it was pretty damn good. I made sure to point out to Vincent that not all newly married men are as lucky as he is in the food department... 

I made chicken tortilla soup - and you need to make some too!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 split chicken breasts

4 cups chicken stock, preferably home made

1 can ro*tel tomatoes, drained (I used mild with green chiles)

1 15oz. can diced tomatoes with juice

1 small can low sodium tomato sauce

1 can sweet whole kernel corn, drained and rinsed

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

2 small yellow onions, diced

1 red bellpepper, diced

1 cup baby carrots, diced

1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

Head of cilantro rinsed, dried, and chopped

Juice of half a lime

1/2 Tbsp cumin

1/2 Tbsp Mrs.Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning

1 Tbsp Hot mexican chili powder

Sea salt and fresh black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.

Y'all know I love mexican food.

If you like mexican food, you need to have Mrs.Dash fiesta lime seasoning in your cabinet. It's good on everything from guacamole to fajitas and even in this dish. If you are reading my blog for the first time, as I realize you might be because I have a whole handful of new and awesome friends since I last posted, pay close attention to this... Good food is easy when you keep the ingredients simple, you use fresh ingredients when possible, and you try to stick to the perimeter of the grocery store. When you're at the stove, one of the most important things that you can do is season every layer of a dish so that the end result is perfect. You don't want to find yourself dumping some unknown sprinkle or dash of something at the end that will ruin all of your hard work. If you're like my best friend Fram - you're probably saying, what do you mean season every layer? Tell me exactly how much of that to put in there. I like sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper. If you don't have a pepper mill, get up and leave your house right now - go to TJ MAXX and get one. I mean it! Every time you add another layer to your pot, give your goodies about 3 handshakes of sea salt and 3 turns of the cracked black pepper mill. No other way to do it!

Roast the chicken.

If you've read before, you know how to make the roasted chicken because it's in everything. Nothing is better than simple roasted chicken (when it comes to meat.) Get your split chicken breasts with the skin on and bone in. If you have time to "dry brine" them - please do. All this means is that you sprinkle them with a heavy coating of COARSE sea salt and leave them covered in the fridge all day. Don't worry about doing that if you are going to make this right now. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil... y'all know I like to keep my pans clean. Pat the chicken dry. Drizzle a light coat of olive oil over the top and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Mrs.Dash fiesta lime seasoning. Don't measure it. 

Come on, you can do this... just sprinkle a good amount. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

(If you're really busy, you could probably get away with using a rotisserie chicken. I've had to do that before but this is better).

My dad always taught me Mes en place. Everything in it's place. 

Get out all of your other ingredients and wash your veggies. Dice them up.

In a large soup pot, heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil and add the onion. Salt and pepper them and cook until they start to get a little translucent. Add the red bell pepper, carrots, jalapeno, garlic, and cumin. Salt and Pepper again. Cook for about 5 minutes or until soft. Add the ro*tel tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock, corn, black beans, mexican chili powder, and another hefty sprinkle of Mrs.Dash fiesta lime seasoning. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Leave the lid off. 

Now is the time that you can spend chopping the cilantro, and hopefully if your chicken is done cooking, you can have it cool off enough for you to remove the meat and shred it with 2 forks. 

Once again, pepper proves to be extremely interested in chicken. She barks at it.

Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, cilantro, and lime juice. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes.

Prepare various toppings if you wish such as diced avocado, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, tortilla strips or tortilla chips. We use blue corn tortilla chips and crunch them over the top! Yumm.

So delicious and just right for this refreshing fall evening weather that we have! This should last us a few days, which is perfect for my work schedule that includes 9am-9pm shifts the next few days. 

By the way - since there is a partial Federal Government shutdown at this time, I was told by the clerk of court that I cannot change my name at this time.... gotta love 'merica.

Hope you enjoy,

Megan Procido *Hamblin* 

to everyone except the federal government

Eggs and Friends

I'm not going to lie, we use a lot of eggs in my house. Whether they are used to make breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack, in baking, or as a wash of some sort - we use them. Vincent loves eggs and I try to do different things with them so that the thought "oh, scrambled eggs again" never enters his mind. I think that I'm fairly successful at varying my uses of the edible incredible egg!

So, without further consideration - here are 2 uses of the egg for you to try!

Perfectly Boiled Eggs with Fresh Raspberry Muffins

Boiled eggs. I'm not talking about those nasty dry and crumbly boiled eggs with a green ring around the yolk that smell like a baby's diaper that needs changing. You know, the ones that you find on salad bars and things. These are creamy, light, and perfectly egg-y. Place the eggs in a medium saucepan and cover with about 1 inch of water above the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat and allow the eggs to soak in the hot water bath for exactly 10 minutes. Run cool water into the pot until all of the water is cool to the touch and keep the eggs in cool water for 2 minutes. Roll them on the counter to crack the shells and remove the shell and membrane. Slice in half, sprinkle with sea salt and cracked black pepper and serve! Yum. These are a tasty dose of protein that you can add to any meal at any time of day. Be careful not to eat more than 7-8 yolks a week in order to prevent a spike in cholesterol. Studies show that just 7-8 eggs are an okay (and paleo friendly) part of your diet.

I made these eggs with a batch of absolutely delicious muffins. The muffins were a plain milk batter with a layer of fresh sugar coated raspberries in the center. I love surprises like these! The concept behind these muffins was to maintain the integrity of a delicate berry like raspberries by placing a tablespoon of them in the center of the muffin batter, rather than folding the berries into the batter as a whole. So, I filled each muffin liner up half way with the batter and spooned some fresh raspberries, which I sprinkled with sugar to taste, and topped each one with another heaping tablespoon of batter. To top it off with a little texture and flavor - cinnamon sugar! Each muffin came out light and fluffy with a dense middle layer of raspberries. They were absolutely delicious; Vincent ate 3 before I ever even sat down at the table! (you know that means they were good!)

Another use of the egg is one that I find to be a great quick dinner when you really don't want to dirty a million dishes, but you want something tasty and whole. Roasted asparagus with scallion scrambled eggs and havarti. Okay, you don't need cheese to make these eggs wonderful, but I had some creamy havarti in my cheese drawer - and I thought why not? Roasted asparagus are essentially a staple in my kitchen. We eat them with roasted chicken, rice, salmon, whatever - so eggs are just another good partner for this favorite. Wash the asparagus and "trim the stems." It may be upsetting, but the best way to do this is to hold the flowering end of the asparagus spear with one hand and bend the blunt end back until it snaps off. Usually more asparagus snaps off than I desire, but you just need to deal with it. This is the best way to serve the fresh part of the spear and you can save the ends for use as vegetable stock or in soup. Drizzle the asparagus spears with a light coating of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and cracked pepper. Roast in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until bright green and tender. The time will vary with the thickness of spears. While the asparagus are roasting, you can whip up some homemade biscuits or toast and the eggs. I like to use a few whole eggs and a few egg whites, but use your better judgement. Also, I buy eggs that have extra Omega 3 because we really need this vitamin in our diets. (as if I don't eat enough salmon!). Whip the eggs with a fork until your forearm hurts - this will keep them fluffy. I add a tablespoon of milk or ice water to keep the fluff up, also. Dice 2 scallions for every 4 eggs and add them about 3/4 of the way through the cooking process. Now I cook my eggs over medium heat, because there is nothing worse than burnt eggs. Another tip is to remove the pan from the heat when there is still a little liquid left to the eggs because the pan will continue to cook them without overdoing it. Sprinkle with grated havarti for extra umph and serve them over a bed of roasted asparagus. You will go to bed happy that night. I promise.

Kiss Me I'm Irish Italian

Ok, so I'm only a little Irish... but that's what you're supposed to say on the green beer holiday - St. Patrick's Day! I was at work for this one, but I whipped up a yummy and healthy rendition of Shepherds Pie before my shift so that we had a great meal anyway. Now this dish is traditionally made with lamb (hence, the shepherd part) but I don't eat lamb, so I used turkey instead! And of course I gave it a little Procido twist. Check it out if you're looking for the ultimate comfort food with less calories.

St. Patrick Turkey Pie


1 lb ground white turkey meat
1 medium yellow onion
1/2 purple onion
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp flour
1 12 oz. bottle of beer
3 carrots
1 cup frozen english peas
1 stalk celery
1/3 bell pepper
2 cups chicken stock
4 baking potatoes
Grated reduced fat cheddar cheese for the top (optional)
fresh parsley


Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks. Place in a medium pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until soft. Reserve. Heat a large pan over medium high heat and add a Tbsp of olive oil. Chop and saute the onions until translucent and add garlic. To this, add the ground turkey and chop it up into small pieces as it cooks through. Mix the tomato paste and flour and combine with the turkey mixture, stirring constantly for a few minutes until incorporated. Give the mixture about 1/2 cup of chicken stock and add the carrots, peas, celery, and bell pepper. Allow this to cook for 3-4 minutes and pour the bottle of beer on top. Reduce heat and cook for an additional 7-8 minutes or until thick and saucy. A lot of freshly cracked black pepper, sea salt, and some paprika + nutmeg really add something to the flavor of this dish. While the veggie-turkey mixture is simmering away you can mash the potatoes. Drain the water and add the chicken stock 1/2 cup at a time to the potatoes as you whip them. At this point, I also added 9 cloves of garlic to make garlicky mashed potatoes. If you desire, you can add a little earth balance or butter for flavor and creaminess, but if you're really looking for a healthy meal the chicken stock will do the trick! Sprinkle in some freshly chopped parsley and combine. Place the turkey mixture in the bottom of a large baking dish and cover with the mashed potatoes. Top with a handful of shredded cheddar cheese if desired. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Yum!!! 

The beer in this dish really gives the turkey a smoky and deep complexity that is great. I think the nutmeg almost aids the beer in transforming the turkey into a more gamey tasting protein and you probably won't even miss the lamb if you're willing to compromise. This dish incorporates a nice ratio of vegetables to meat and starch, although you could reduce the number of potatoes if you prefer. I have also considered making this dish with zucchini and mushrooms instead of the ground turkey for a completely vegetarian delight! You may be asking yourself - what the hell is she doing adding bell pepper and celery to shepherds pie? Well that's where the Procido in me comes to play. In New Orleans, we start almost every really good dish with a trinity of onions, celery, and bell pepper - so I thought "it can only make this better" and I had some extra celery and bell pepper anyway! I think it really works here, too.

Unfortunately I somehow deleted the pictures of this dish, but if you think it sounds appealing you should try it. It's a warming meal with little repercussions.

Breezy Seaside Cake

This is it! The moment I've been dancing around for several months... the creation of my first wedding cake for Laura and Kevin Perkins! Until recently, I had not ever even attempted multi tiered cakes. The Cornflower Blue Blog is an account of my first 2 tier cake, which I made as a practice cake for this event. I learned that leveling and torting is an essential process when making a stacked cake - or it will be uneven. Also, gel coloring continues to impart color into buttercream frosting over time...  a good tip is to add a little coloring and wait a while before deciding if the color is perfect. This was all so overwhelming and exciting.

Let me just give you a little hint on how much I love wedding cakes. Food Network Cake Challenge, Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes - all tv shows that I frequently watch at work just to see the process and product of wedding cake baking. I think that big tall stacked cakes are magnificent, and I have always wanted to make one. When Laura hinted that she would be interested in me making her wedding cake, I didn't hesitate for a second - I basically jumped at the offer. Watching countless YouTube videos on cake decorating and structure was extremely beneficial for me, having never taken a cake class. I have always been a self instructed person, so this wasn't a huge to do. In high-school I baked often, and I even taught myself how to sew purses and eventually a backpack. I have to say thank you to Vincent's mom for supplying me with several wedding cake magazines that I received great tips from, in addition to the supplies that she pretended she already had in her cabinet, but I know she really went out and bought them for me because she was excited! Thanks Mrs. Julie!!!

So here is the process:

Step 1: Baking the Cake

Making a 3 tiered cake with 3 layers in each tier is a pretty big task in and of itself. That is a LOT of cake! The tier sizes were 6", 10" and 14". The middle 10" tier was chocolate espresso cake and the rest of the cake was white wedding cake - all from scratch (I wasn't going to mess around with mixes here). You will have to make 7 batches of the white wedding cake to fill the 14" and 6" for 3 tiers worth, and 2 batches of the chocolate cake will be perfect for the 10."

White Wedding Cake
2 2/3 cups cake flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
Sift together and set aside.


Preheat oven to 325. 
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream 1 1/2 sticks of butter. Slowly add 2 cups + 2 T sugar. Allow these to cream together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.


In a separate bowl, separate 4 1/2 egg whites. Whisk until foamy and add 1 cup + 2T of milk, 2 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp lemon extract. These flavors really kick this cake up a notch! 


Begin mixing the dry and wet ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar, alternating the mixtures. Do not overbeat! Bake until slightly golden on top and a skewer comes out clean - 55 min for 14" cake with heated core or 25 min for 6" cake. Yum!

Chocolate Espresso Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup (packed) cocoa powder 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

8 ounces French roast coffee, freshly brewed and cooled

2 cups granulated sugar

4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

3 whole eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla

1 teaspoon Almond Extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Sift the flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together. Reserve.

Brew a fresh pot of French roast coffee. Cool and reserve.

In a bowl of an electric mixer combine the sugar, and butter. Mix on medium speed until combined well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the brewed coffee and combine on low speed.

Once combined, add in the buttermilk and then the eggs, 1 at a time.. Continue to mix on low speed. The mixture may look ‘curdled’ …this is ok.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Gently fold in the sifted dry ingredients. Pour batter into the prepared cake pan and fill half way up.

For a 10" round with a heated core, bake for about 45 min.

yum.

Step 2: Cooling and Storing the Cake

Once the cakes come out of the oven, it is essential to cool them properly. Allow them to come to room temperature in the cake pan on a wire rack. Then, Turn the cake out onto a cake board (you can buy these from Walmart in packs according to the diameter of your cake). Wrap the cake and board tightly in plastic wrap and freeze until ready to level and tort. 

Step 3: Making the filling

Organic Dark Baking Chocolate

For Laura and Kevins cake, we did alternating layers of red raspberry filling and dark chocolate mousse - it was heavenly. When you took a bite, you tasted bright tart raspberries, then creamy rich dark chocolate - and the almond in the cake really came through to enhance the chocolate flavors. If you're interested in those recipes, let me know! 

Step 4: Torting and Filling

This is a tedious task! Mrs. Julie bought me a cake leveler (thank you!) which is basically a metal wire, stretched tightly with a handle. I used this to cut the crown off of the cake and it is adjustable, so that you can actually cut the cake in half to fill between. The 14" cake was too big for the leveler, so my snazzy engineering boyfriend crafted me a homemade version using wooden dowels and beading wire (thanks Vin!) He really helped me out here with his engineering perspective, as we were constantly measuring the height of each layer - in order to make the final height of each tier within 1/2 inch of each other. You really don't want the tiers to look different in height. Also, something that my dad taught me when I was young often resonates with me as I cook - Mise en place... Everything in its place. This is very important in the torting and filling steps of making a multi tiered cake. Have the buttercream, cake, and filling prepped and ready to go! 

Icing Bumper

Once the cakes are cut into level layers, it's time to fill them. In order to do this, it's important to pipe a ring of buttercream around the outside edge of the cake, using just a coupler - or the end of a piping bag cut off. This prevents the filling from squishing out of the side of the cake once it's stacked tall - because it becomes very heavy!!! Then, begin to fill the cake, adding a few tablespoons at a time until there is about 1/2 inch of filling spread evenly - making sure that the filling is slightly lower than the icing bumper.

Using an angled spatula really helps to distribute the filling evenly and also aids in placing the next layer of cake on - and having it perfectly centered. Once all of the cakes are filled and even (you can check this using a level) it's time to chill them. I like to refrigerate the cake so that the filling is set, slightly hardened, and you can work on making the buttercream. (Get in your right mind and move any meat or other dirty things away from the cake. Make sure your fridge is a friendly place for an unwrapped cake at this point. Don't be nuts.)

Step 5: Butter, Cream, Butter, Cream - Buttercream!!!

This is essential. You can't serve yucky icing on a wedding cake. You can, however, use 12 pound of powdered sugar and 4 pounds of butter to make buttercream :) I never said it was healthy... but it's a really good wedding cake!

Buttercream Icing
2 sticks butter
1 cup shortening 
2 (2 lb) bags of powdered sugar
1 T meringue powder
1 T vanilla
1 t almond extract
1 t lemon extract


Cream the butter and shortening. Slowly add one bag of the sugar and the meringue powder. Add 1/4 cup cold water and the extracts and mix until creamy. Begin slowly adding the second bag of powdered sugar (prepare yourself for a kitchen haze of sugar) and alternate with a final volume of 1/2 cup of heavy cream to give the icing spreading consistency. I made 3 batches of this for the cornflower blue backdrop of the cake and 1 batch for the white piping detail. You will have to mix the gel coloring by hand, and you need to make enough so that you don't have to batches of colored icing - this way the color is consistent throughout. Vincent was slightly appalled at the sheer amount of butter in this icing, but he didn't hesitate to steel cake crumbs slathered with a little spoonful of this stuff :)


Step 6: Crumb Coating

Taking a portion of the buttercream, thin it slightly with a little bit of cream so that you can lightly coat the cake with it. This is called crumb coating. This sheer layer of crumb coating holds any crumbs that come off of the cake when you're coving it with icing so that once the cake is chilled and you go to put the thick layer of decorative frosting, the crumbs stay captivating inside of the crumb coating and you have a smooth and sexy finish. Refrigerate the cakes after crumb coating, and prepare the cakes for their thick coat of buttercream. 15 minutes should do the trick, trick!

Step 7: Icing the cake

Ok. My cornflower blue frosting was in a rubbermaid container at this point. Vincent and I had to take turns with a wooden spoon mixing the cornflower blue coloring into the white buttercream to achieve a perfect hue! It's very important that you keep the buttercream covered when you're working with a smaller portion of it. Take a piece of plastic wrap and pat it down directly onto the top of the buttercream in the container and then cover the top with several additional pieces of plastic wrap. If you think I'm crazy, go ahead and let your icing get crusty - you'll be angry and you'll have to make more. (not fun!). Cover it adequately.

What I like to do is to take some of the buttercream and place it into a piping bag with a coupler and no tip. This way, I can pipe big stripes of icing onto the cake and then use an angled spatula to smooth it out, rather than constantly dipping the spatula into the icing bowl and going back and forth. It keeps the icing fluffier and tastier!

As you can see, this is especially important on the chocolate cake because the crumbs are persistent little italians! I'm telling you... you will get angry at the chocolate crumbs if you are as OCD as I am! It's a wedding cake, people. No one wants to see those little crumbs sneaking out of the icing. The want to see the icing! Ok. Smooth it out with an angled spatula. It's not going to be perfect so this is what you do.

A. Dip the angled spatula in piping hot water and quickly dry it off. Use the hot spatula to smooth the buttercream. Repeat several times until the cake is looking pretty darn good!


B. Refrigerate the cake until the frosting is dry to the touch. This means that when you take your hand and give the top of the cake a little slap, your hand has no icing residuals on it... 20 minutes in a cold refrigerator should be good. Then, obtain a roll of thick paper towels that have no design imprinted on them (I used Viva) and a fondant smoother (or your hand... or anything small and flat for that matter). Place the paper towel directly onto the cake and using the smoother, press with medium pressure and move in small circles. Remove the paper towel (it shouldn't be sticking to the cake... you're in big doodoo if it is). Repeat this smoothing process all over the top and sides of the cake. Look at how great it looks! I had several people ask me if the cake was fondant, to which I proudly replied - no it's just really smooth buttercream. Pride, shooting out of my ears and nostrils, with me trying to act like it was no big deal. Yeah, it was awesome.

Step 8: Structure

Vincent was very helpful here! It order to have the cake stand tall and proud, it is essential to place wooden dowels into the cake to hold up the superior tiers. To do this, you have to think. Ok - the bottom tier was 14" and the next tier was 10", so that is a 4" diameter difference. Which means there will be 2" between the edge of the bottom cake and the edge of the middle cake on all sides. Right? (4"/ 2... 2"). Okay, so the dowels will need to be within a 2" ring of the outside. But really, I wanted the dowels to be 1" inside the edge of the 10" cake so that the center of the cake was really supported. So we measured to have 8 dowels placed 3" from the edge of the 14" tier. I have a college degree, follow me here. (and Vincent is really good with numbers haha). Woah Woah, we need to get a height estimate on the dowels now that we know where to place them, which we marked with toothpicks. To do this, we placed one dowel into the cake until it touched the bottom and then pulled it out. From there, we cut the dowel slightly below the icing line and cut the remaining 7 dowels accordingly. Insert dowels into cake and voila, we have structure. We repeated this process with the 10" cake, placing 4 dowels 3" from the outside edge. In the end, this really helped us to see exactly where to put the superior tiers when we were stacking the cake!

Step 9: Detail

Detail. Also known as broken hand/possible tendonitis!!! Laura wanted an intricate petal design on her cake, which took a lot of practice with different piping tips to get down - but I did it! (I think). Either way, I piped detail from 7 am - 1 pm on Saturday and I was glad once the detail was almost done because it is work! Very fun work :)

Having a turntable to set the cake on was very helpful at this point, so that I could swivel the cake according to my piping angle. Tedious, but very worth it!

Step 10: Transporting and Stacking the Cake

This was the scariest part of the whole process. I boxed each tier of the cake separately and I held the 14" cake in my lap (no box was large enough). Then, Vincent drove me ever so slowly to the wedding reception site. We walked into the reception area to make sure that the cake table was set up, which it was and then we carried each tier separately to the cake table. Stacking was probably the most nerve wrecking thing because several members of the wedding party were watching me and I wanted to make sure that the tiers lined up evenly and also I had to be extremely careful not to mess up my oh so wonderful hand piped petal detail. To my amazement, and with Vincent's help, I stacked the cakes easily without problems! Then, I piped a shell border in the seams of each tier.

And the final product...

The compliments that I received at the wedding were all so nice, and I am very proud of my cake! I hope that there are other opportunities to do this in the future, although I will have to at least request payment for the ingredients, as they easily totaled $150 - $200. A less complicated cake could probably be more affordable, depending on the fillings and cake recipe. This satisfied my senses of creativity for a while, and I was happy to do this for my friends as a wedding present!

Soon to come - Tech Cake II for the Castleberry family crawfish boil next weekend.

Indulgence Month!

Okay, so I've been on a blogging hiatus for the last week or so because I've been sidetracked by a very important upcoming event... Laura & Kevins Wedding! Several really great culinary events have happened, though. And I can't leave them out!

First, Gallatoires. My dad treated my sister Katie, her girlfriend Jen, and I to a dinner at Gallatoires - a New Orleans tradition. Located on the infamous Bourbon Street, this place is classic. You have to wear a coat to enter the door of this restaurant, so fancy attire is their way of keeping out the riffraff. The cuisine on the first floor is traditional cajun food stepped up to first class. Crab meat maison, oysters rockafeller, creamed spinach, fried eggplant, redfish with amandine sauce... yum! This event is definitely an indulgence. My dad, being the french quarter wine man, knows almost everyone who frequents Gallatoires - and with that advantage, we had an abundance of extra treats on the house! Katie and I started off with a drink made with cucumber gin, rosemary, and a floral liquor called St. Germain and I think there was also honey in it. Most delicious cocktail ever! We then moved on to a delicious and very special wine from Tablas Creek.

My main dish was a red snapper fillet topped with shrimp etouffee. Oh boy! That was a treat. It was like transformed gumbo (which we all know I love!) Everyone else at the table had some rendition of a grilled fish and a delicious sauce. For dessert - not to be skipped- bread pudding with bananas foster on top. This dessert meant business, and we could not collectively finish it because it was so filling! (but it was perfect)

Appetizers

Fresh Bread Every 5 Minutes!

Dessert

Apparently I was too excited to take a picture of the main dish! Oh well, you'll have to take my word for it :)

Procido Family

After being on a cloud for several days after Gallatoires, it was time to get to work on cake. I needed a little practice last week on my cake skills because the wedding is approaching and I could use all of the practice I could get! My friend Meg's boyfriend graduated from LA Tech (go dawgs!) so I made him a Tech cake that was alternating layers of chocolate espresso and vanilla almond. Buttercream decorations to go around. But wait! A bad thunderstorm rolled in right as I began to pipe designs on the cake, and alas... I was forced to complete the fanciness with a headlamp. Definitely a one time experience.

For the icing, I made the background sky blue so that the cake would be festive and pretty to look at and then I tried my hand at red icing. Let me just tell you, don't ever take red icing for granted! It took an entire tube of gel food coloring to dye chocolate buttercream icing red. I'm talking a cereal bowl worth of icing. That's a lot of coloring gel! It lends to a not too pleasant taste in the icing, so I only used red for the accents. All in all, I love the result of this cake!

Coming up soon will be the real wedding cake - all 12 layers of cake and zillions of raspberries of filling later. The event is in just 3 days!!!

On a savory note, I made some spinach rice pilaf to go with a nice grilled salmon filet and vegetable skewers. The pilaf was a last minute concoction, but hey - that's what cooking is about. We loved it! I promised Katie that I would post this recipe, because it is a must.

Spinach Rice Pilaf

1/2 cup orzo
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 T earth balance
2 cups defrosted frozen spinach
small handful of cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

In a medium pot melt the earth balance and saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and the orzo and toast the orzo slightly for about 1 minute. Add the stock and basmati rice, stir. Bring this mixture to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed. Fluff the pilaf and incorporate the spinach into the rice. This takes a little effort, but using a wooden spoon, you should be able to fold the spinach into the pilaf so that the whole thing is somewhat green. If you prefer, you can puree the spinach with a little bit of stock in a food processor before adding it to the rice. Add some chopped cilantro, and/or parsley, salt and pepper to taste. For something snazzy, I added a handful of crumbled feta and a some toasted slivered almonds for crunch. Yum!

Chocolate Covered Monday

Valentines Day. A time for wasting money and the advertisement of childlike love... I mean really? Look, I'm Italian and as far as I'm concerned - Valentines Day is just a reason to allow myself to spend extra money at the store so that I can make some tasty treats. Russel Stover can shove it. I usually try to eat healthy meals, but I allow for exception on "special occasions." Another thing - I'm a Procido, which by nature means that I do things in excess. Speaking of health, dark chocolate is way more tantalizing and beneficial for the soul and body than milk chocolate. I much prefer using high quality bittersweet and semisweet chocolate than some gnarly milk chocolate hershey's chips. Chocolate covered strawberries are a must, then I made some dark chocolate ganache truffles rolled in nuts, toasted coconut, or dusted with cocoa powder. For dinner I made a delicious white wine sauce for a big pot of whole wheat linguine with shrimp. Roasted asparagus are what I call a fancy veg, but I'll eat those every night of the week! Yum. Yum. Yum.

For the chocolate truffles, making the ganache center is really easy! Chop 10 ounces of bittersweet chocolate with a chefs knife. (Chop chocolate from a bar or baker's chocolate. Chocolate chips have stabilizers that help them keep their shape, so the bar chocolate melts better). In a small saucepan heat 3/4 cup heavy cream on medium heat until small bubbles are rising around the edge of the pan. Add about 1/4 of the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth and velvety and then combine the remaining chocolate with the cream/chocolate mixture. This is a simple way of tempering the chocolate - which is just a fancy way of not getting the chocolate above a certain temperature so that it stays glossy when it hardens later. Using a whisk, beat the ganache until all of the chocolate shavings have melted and you have a smooth and thick chocolate sauce. Add 2 tblsp. room temperature butter cut into pieces. Continue to whisk the mixture until it is combined. Line a square or rectangle dish with plastic saran wrap, using a large piece that extend at least 1 foot over the dish. Pour the ganache into the dish and smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Take the excess saran wrap and fold it over the ganache, pressing it directly over the surface. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes or allow the ganache to cool at room temperature for several hours. 

Dark Chocolate Truffles

Using two teaspoons scoop small mounds of the ganache onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate until the mounds are hardened. Using your hands, roll the ganache mounds into round balls - truffles! Refrigerate while you melt some chocolate. I usually melt a couple of more bars of chocolate in the microwave 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until melted. Prepare a tray with chopped nuts, toasted coconut, and cocoa powder - or any other topping you like. Set up a station so that you can take a ganache ball, dip it in chocolate, roll it in a topping, and drop it off to cool. Use two forks for the dipping process so that the ganache center is only covered in chocolate - but not dripping. Play with it! This is not rocket science. But it is chocolate excellence :)

Now that we have fancy chocolate for sharing, delicious dinner is a must. I was quite surprised and delighted to find some large shrimp in the freezer section at the store. They were gulf shrimp - about 12 count to a pound! I defrosted, peeled, and deveined them (important!). White wine sauce is one of my favorite pasta sauces to eat with seafood. I don't make it that often because it's expensive and it has butter in it - which is delicious, but not healthy! To make the sauce melt 2 tblsp. butter and 2 tblsp. olive oil in a pan. Add 2 chopped shallots and 2 cloves of garlic, chopped, and saute about 3-4 minutes. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Cook until pink and remove the shrimp. To the pan add 1/2 cup good white wine (I used a white burgundy from France)... by the way you should be drinking whatever you are cooking with at the present moment. Also, add the juice of one lemon and plenty of salt and pepper. Allow this to simmer for a few minutes, add half a pound of freshly cooked whole wheat linguine, the shrimp, a handful of fresh parsley and a sprinkle of pecorino cheese. Heaven!

For some greens, I made a yummy salad with half spring mix and half baby spinach, fresh blueberries, crumbled feta, toasted pecans, avocado sprinkled with salt and pepper, dried cranberries, a few parsley leaves and a champagne vinaigrette. We barely had room for this! The pasta was soooo good.

And of course, don't forget... Alpine and Pepper could tell something exciting was happening because I put a scarf on pepper, which she loved! I've never seen a dog with so much sass before as this little girl...

Cornflower Blue

In an effort to practice a semi complete product that will resemble the wedding cake that I am planning on making for the Burton-Perkins wedding, I had fun with some buttercream and cake... and lots of filling!

So this cake is a white wedding cake recipe with lemon and almond extracts. Very simple and light - thanks to the 8 egg whites that I whipped into fluffy perfection and delicately folded into the dense cake batter. Being a Procido, I couldn't just stop there. No. I made a dark chocolate mousse using 50%, 70% lindt chocolate bars and some bittersweet baking chocolate. In addition I also made a tart and sweet raspberry filling. The cake layers were alternating with these fillings and then slathered in the oh so delicious buttercream frosting. I am working with cornflower blue as a wedding color for my friend Laura, so the main cake icing was dyed using the gel Wilton dye. After the fact I realized that the dye continues to impart color over a few hours, so next time I will have to use less dye in order to achieve the lightness that I prefer in this icing color. I attempted a design using royal icing in white. This design was obviously intended for fondant and I know this because it was really bulky on the cake. I have pretty steady hands and I wasn't able to uniformly pipe this design just due to its nature. Oh well, I'll try fondant next! A work in progress for sure...