Chocolat Inspired Molten Chili Chocolate Cake…

Or, A Tale of Crisitunity Rewarded

Let us pretend that you are me: you have just finished a pretty good day after a long slew of less good (or as I prefer to call them, “bad”) ones. You have eaten a relatively healthy meal. It is 8:30 pm. You want cake. You want chocolate cake.

You find an easy-looking recipe (complete with mouthwatering food-porn image) for hot fudge chocolate pudding cake. You arrange all of the ingredients in a neat row on the counter-top. (Stop. That is a lie. You do not do anything of the sort. You toss all of the ingredients you think should be in the recipe haphazardly onto the counter, ensuring that you will miss a key ingredient because you are too lazy to read the recipe properly. If you’re going to be me, get it right.)

A cautionary tale involving penis cake…

I would like to share, in addition to a recipe, a hilarious story that took place while undertaking said recipe. Fortunately (or unfortunately, if you happen to be fantastically disturbed), this incident is no where near as weird as you probably think. There were no penises in or around the cake or cake batter at any point in time (that I know of). The story begins with an idea to hold a castration-themed film night, and quickly devolves from that point…

Painting Reward: 15 Minute Broccoli Pasta Toss

Since I am supposed to be writing a chapter, I thought I would share what I made for dinner last night.

I have moved into a new flat recently, and it desperately needed a new coat of paint. So, last night, my flatmate, her boyfriend, and I painted the living room. We were going to do the living room/hall, but ran out of time and got tired. We finished at about 8:00, and I was starving. I also had no money, or felt like I had no money, having paid this month for moving costs, painting costs, tuition (goodbye £10,400), rent, connection fees, etc, etc, etc. So I didn’t want to buy anything.

In my fridge I had:

Lentil, Bacon, and Tomato Soup

I haven’t not been cooking or baking (far from it!) but I have been accidentally deleting photos of said cooking or baking adventures before uploading them. Oops!

But I made such a yummy soup the other day and it’s been so long that I thought I would put the recipe up here even without photos!

It was a fantastic autumn soup, and very similar to my Bacon and Butter Bean soup (actually, I think the Bacon and Butter Bean is better so I’ll put the differences in and you can choose).

Good-bye (and Welcome Home) Mac n’ Cheese

Well, tomorrow morning I am getting on a bus and taking the looong (9.5 hour long) journey to London, and then to Gatwick airport, from which I shall be flying home on my way to a conference and much-needed visit! I will be away for about 7 weeks in total. This means a) I am going to miss Edinburgh and am somewhat sad; b) I need to empty my fridge; c) I am going to be returning in 7 weeks, homesick, jet-lagged, and generally miserable.

So I needed some comfort food for tonight (travelling always makes me nervous, and I love this city and will miss it so much) and needed to make enough that I could freeze it and have the rest when I get back in May all exhausted and with no food to eat.

SOLUTION? Wicked-awesome Mac n’ Cheese, of course.

So cheesy, so good.

Which I thought I should post for you, since it was so devastatingly yummy.

Bad Baby Bacon Pie (aka my first ever quiche… I think).

I’ve been pretty stressed out lately. When I get stressed out, I watch and re-watch and re-watch over and over again certain films that I find calming, or that allow me to regress to a state of childhood. It’s totally healthy; at least, I’m 82% sure it’s totally healthy. Lately the film that I’ve found calming is Adrienne Shelley’s Waitress (2007). If you don’t know of it, do watch it. Even if you’re some big silly macho man (who likes to read recipes? I didn’t think this through) if not because it’s a terribly sweet movie, then because of the pie. I always come away from this movie wanting to bake pies.

And this time is no exception! But it is exceptional in that I actually did! This quiche was inspired by the movie’s “Bad Baby Pie” – a quiche with a brie and smoked ham centre. I wanted it. I did not have smoked ham. But I did have pancetta cubes, and some pre-made butter pastry that had been on sale a couple of weeks ago and which I bought because I rarely have time to make my own. And so I planned. And early last week I saw that brie was on sale at Tescos… and I knew that my time had come. And, even better, I realised after making the pie that yesterday was, in fact, Pi Day. It was my destiny to make this quiche.

A fridge-emptying rice-topper (version the first)

There comes a point – whether at the end of the week, or towards the middle – when you look at your fridge and realise you have bits and pieces of a whole bunch of stuff but nothing you particularly know what to do with. I get this often. I will end up with a few fast-withering pieces of broccoli, peppers, spinach, or a small end of cheese, or some leftover chicken breast, or what have you.

I have therefore become somewhat good at throwing these things into a pan with a bit of olive oil or soup stock or soy sauce and calling it a stir fry (even though I know it really isn’t). I don’t know what it is, except delicious! The other day, I found myself in such a situation, and had the presence of mind to take a few photos of the process.

Salt and Pepper Pitta Chips

Remember when I once said that I had made pitta (or pita, in North America) chips and would pass my methods along someday? Well, that day has come. It’s a ridiculously simple recipe, and makes a delicious and light snack food that goes wonderfully in place of crisps. Pitta chips make some good nachos, and are very nice with guacamole, cream cheese, or tzatziki!

Ready for the easiest 20 minutes of cooking in your life? YES!

Guacamole SUCCESS

I just realised that I have already posted about my guacamole failure, and suggested that I would entice you all with details of any future avocado-related success, but never did so despite the fact that I made some excellent guacamole last night to go with my Veggie Potato-Nacho Mess of Goodness or whatever it was called. I did briefly outline how I made it, but for future reference I shall clarify it here as a separate post (this will also make trackbacks easier).

Veggie Potato-Nacho Pile of Deliciousness

My mother is a genius. I mean this. A culinary genius. For example, today she told me that my little sister (who is 12) has recently followed in my 22 year old brother’s footsteps in becoming a vegetarian, and that she had begged my darling mum for a new, delicious, meatless dish for dinner. Her answer? Take some Tater Tots and dress them up like vegetarian nachos!

As I listened to her tale of foodie-adventure, it occurred to me that I had the very same ingredients! And so I set about making the most amazing plate of pseudo-nacho heaven I’ve eaten in a long while. And they were dirt cheap, too!