Happy Birthday Oliver!

One of my favorite annual traditions since marrying into the Maduro/Dusedau family is making our little cousin Oliver's birthday cake each year. It started with a baby chick cake for his first birthday, last year I went crazy with a green dinosaur at his request and THIS year, for his big 4th birthday, I wanted to do something that stuck with the "Science" theme of his party - thrown jointly with his best friend OB (Oliver Benjamin). 

SO...taking inspiration from Pinterest, and with advice from Sara and Keeley - who've tackled this cake for their own kiddos, I made what looked like just a nothing-fancy vanilla cake. 

Oliver and OB had to help finish it, by putting colored sprinkles on the top...(the final ingredients for this science experiment)....

THEN...I cut a slice- revealing that the sprinkles turned the cake RAINBOW inside!!

So fun to see their amazed faces and squealing excitement!

 

I'd say it was a hit. 

Now I need to start planning next year's cake...

Chocolate Cookies...

A recipe for Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies is up today on Saucy Little Dish. Click here to go see!

Yum!!

Putting the kitchen to use...

I love my friends. I love having people in my life who will try anything - who get an idea in their heads and then follow through.

Rachel and Tannaz are the all-stars of making good ideas happen. Months ago, we were riffing about our shared love of cured meats...and thought, WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS!? And our club, which we named "Panacea" was born. (Apologies in advance for any photos that may be NSFW!)

Our first attempt was simple - curing salmon to make grav lax and some homemade ricotta. It was quite a success if I do say so myself. Check out Tannaz's blog - All Kinds of Yum - for pics from that glorius evening.

This time, we got a little closer to our dreams of cured sausages and animal legs (I need to get a thermometer and see if a dark corner of our basement might be right for hanging meat!) and ground up pounds of pork and fat with a lot of herbs and spices to make spicy italian sausage.

Our day began with an email chain about where to get pork back fat and some pig intestines as sausage casings. (One of the grossest things I've ever purchased.) Then we met, over white whine and some homemade potato leek soup, and started grinding and mixing.

Using Michael Ruhlman's great book CHARCUTERIE, which I'd given Rachel as a wedding shower gift, we used my kitchen aid attachment to grind the pork, fat, basil, oregano, garlic, paprika, chiles...

...mixed it up with water and vinegar, and began the process of stuffing.

Yeah, not that pretty, but man was that stuff tasty!

Rachel manned the stuffer like a pro.

I have to say - this was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. (Warned you about potentially gross photos.)

Take the finished, um, tube of sausage and give it a twist every six inches. VOILA!

Thanks to Jared Mark for the photo of his dinner last night. Grilled up with a salad. Mmmmm...

What's next ladies?

Veggie "Lasagna"...

Did a post over at Saucy Little Dish today...go check out the super easy Veggie "Lasagna" I made for Neal's return home from a weekend in New Orleans.

Hope everyone is having a good week. We did a few little projects this weekend that I'll put up soon. AND we're finally having our housewarming party this weekend!

Kitchen Details...

I know we owe you guys pics of the whole kitchen, but here's one of my favorite details in the kitchen. In the end of peninsula, we had our contractor put an outlet for mixers, blenders, and in this case, my sewing machine (had to hem some curtains!). It's inside the cupboard, so no ugly plug out in the open and it's in a perfect place for utilizing that counterspace.

The cabinet door DOES actually shut most of the way, so don't worry about me accidentally filling the cupboard with flour and goo from the mixer.

Friends in the Neighborhood...

Our amazing friends Matt and Amelia just bought a house 5 blocks away from us and moved this past weekend. We could not be more excited. Matt and Neal have been close friends since freshman year at NYU and when he moved out here with his high school sweetheart Amelia, they've been one of the best things about living here.

Amelia also happens to be a beautiful writer and author of the award-winning blog, Bon Appetempt. They documented their move (and the move of Matt's prized possession - The Vivianne) with some beautiful shots of our neighborhood, great music and a little bit of comedy.

Enjoy!! http://www.bonappetempt.com/2012/06/video-attempt-vivianne-moves.html

And you should definitely be reading Amelia's blog if you aren't. She chronicles her adventures in attempting recipes from magazines and cookbooks as well as becoming the cook, wife and woman she is today. We're even featured sometimes - from the original attempt, to some that, um, weren't as delicious.

Kitchenless Cobbler

I did, however, document a little bit of our Kitchenless Adventure on Saucy Little Dish this weekend. Check it out!

Also, everyone should buy our dear friend Rachelle's book, WOMEN FROM THE ANKLE DOWN, on sale today!!

Exciting progress...

You guys, exciting things are happening in our kitchen. Here's a little status report.

Here is what it looked like when we bought the place - can lights AND hideous boob lights, gross tile, and just gross everything:

Then our contractor's team ripped EVERYTHING OUT. Fridge, washer and dryer got craigslisted, stove was moved to the front rental unit. Gas, water, washer hookups were moved to fit new kitchen plan, and hardwood replaced the nasty tile - it's still covered here. Our Ikea kitchen was delivered in boxes and bags.

Instead of waiting on Ikea to install - last month was the kitchen sale so it wouldn't have been til May 23rd! yikes! - our guys tackled the job. They actually used powertools though - not the little wrench that comes with Ikea furniture.

This was the place last night. Cabinets in, new recessed light, that's our new deep sink leaning against the back wall. Appliances come today and fabricator gets started on countertops next week!

We're so close!!

A little less bittersweet...

Sold our old 22-Inch Stove on Craigslist for $125. Here it is, awaiting it's new owner.

I managed to cook and bake a lot of amazing things in this little sucker - but man, oh man, I can't wait to meet our new LG Gas Convection Range. Its a whole $30 inches wide guys!!

The fridge clean out...

My amazing parents came to LA for the week to help us pack, help us get the rental and our place ready for us, and just generally assist in whatever way they can. It has been an amazing relief to have them around for deliveries, stove repair, screwing in new mailboxes.

 Last night we started packing up the kitchen (the number of boxes labeled "BAKING" is of a little concern...) and did a big fridge clean out dinner - fritatta with whatever veggies we had, salad, and some quick bread for dessert using up whatever we could find. It ended up being bananas, strawberries, pecans and coconut. Pretty good.

You can find the recipe we created at my other part-time online home, Saucy Little Dish!