Cake Disaster

To celebrate Valentines Day with the BF, I made a diabetic friendly cake. Twice. It was awful.  Both times.  As a twitter follower of +Epicurious I was eager to submit my experience in response to a call for such dilemmas to @AskKemp.

I was really excited when she responded.  After a few back and forth tweets about the details of the recipe, including a tweet of a picture of the recipe, she replied that she was working on determining the problem and to my total delight - Fixing it!  AND that she wanted to include it in her next column post.

What an honour! She wanted to know if I would be patient! and wait.  Of course I would.  Not only was I excited that she would have a solution, I was beginning to believe that the recipe was flawed and its awfulness was not my doing.  Phew!

@smalldeluxe Did you see today's Ask Kemp post? I made a cake for you! epi.us/YeDQKr
— Kemp Minifie (@AskKemp) May 1, 2013

I was thrilled when I read this tweet.  As soon as I got home I checked out her post.

She made the original recipe, included a picture and posted the new and improved recipe in her post.  The original recipe turned out exactly like mine. But the new and improved recipe....  Wow! What a gorgeous looking cake.  I don't think I can post a copy of the photo but encourage you to go and take a look at the post.  The details about why the recipe didn't work are pretty impressive.

The new and improved recipe is now available under the member recipes on Epicurious.

I hope to try it out very soon!!  I will post my results. If you try this recipe please let me know how it works out for you!

Oh...  and Thank you so much, Kemp!!!

Lori

Mounting a Map Poster as Art

Coming soon...

Map Art Project

I have a large map almost 3 feet by 4 feet and a smaller one, just under 2 ft x 3 ft that I found on Wikimedia Commons.

Did you know that there are tons of copyright-free images there?

I found a really seventeenth century map of the region of Italy where my family comes from and an eighteenth century map of the region where my boyfriend comes from.  I am in the process of mounting the smaller map on foam board this week so that I can hang it on the wall.  I will update the website as the project progresses.  When I have successfully completed the project I will move on to the larger map and post some photos.

Skeleton Key Art

Think 'Restoration Hardware' for a fraction of the price.

Online at RH you can purchase a single framed skeleton key for $99.  I had some keys that I have been hoarding for several years, waiting for inspiration.  The shadow boxes were on sale this week at Michaels, I had the paper and spray adhesive from another project.  The only other item I purchase for this project was the E-6000 glue. You can pick up skeleton keys from eBay and put together your own for so little.  I think I spent less than $20.

I started by tracing the backing onto good quality paper, cutting it out, then gluing it to the front side of the backing piece with spray adhesive.  I let it set for an hour.

I drew a blank template matching the size of the backing. I drew centre lines down and across to play with placements on the template.  When I found a layout I liked I used the measurements from the template then traced a light pencil line on the backing where I would glue each key in the right spot.

I used clear E-6000 glue to hold the keys in place...  Tip! put the glue on the keys, NOT on the paper.  The glue is stringy and it will mark the backing paper.

I also suggest having some spacers for keys that don't lay flat, like those big clock keys. I used large toothpicks. The keys tend to roll to one side, which is likely not anyone's the desired result.

I left them overnight to set, cleaned up the shadow boxes, assembled them and hung them in our entryway.

The Best Homemade Frites

These are, Seriously, the best Oven Frites I have ever tasted. I believe that they are probably healthier than anything that comes from a restaurant deep fryer or out of a plastic bag from the grocery store freezer.

I followed this recipe from Pixelated Crumb.  I only made two large potatoes and I ended up with an overcrowd the pan. I  can appreciate the difference spreading out the fries and keeping them in a single layer would make to the final product.  Oh well, maybe another trip to my favourite kitchen supply shop and another serving of garlic fries.

I didn't make the garlic aioli and I didn't miss it. These are so flavourful that they can be enjoyed with just the spice mixture and garlic oil. 

Using only two large russet potatoes I ended up with lots of fries.  The mandolin really saves time and produces nice consistently sized fries. I left the skins on... I like them that way and one less step.

Here is the garlic lightly sautéing in the oil. 

One of the steps in the recipe tells you to oil the pan and sprinkle it with sea salt and pepper. I thought it made a really interesting landscape. 

I put all my spices in a little bowl and was very intrigued by the colours. I think they are so beautiful.  And when people say to have lots of colour in your meals I will think about my fries.

Your hands are going to get messy.  Jump in, it's worth it.

It's easy to see here that there are too many fries the pan is too small for the amount of fries I made

 Before baking

Yeah, sometimes this happens when I cook.

The final product

Try these, you'll love them. And as they cook they fill up the house with the aroma of those colourful spices.



Here's the link to the Pixelated Crumb's Recipe again.

Enjoy!! I am off to make my third batch of Avocado Brownies this week.

Avocado Smoothie

After trying the Avocado Brownie Recipe from the Chubby Vegetarian's website I eyed their Avocado Mango Smoothie and included the ingredients in my shopping list for Saturday morning. 

 I love the colour. 

I made them this morning. I didn't add the honey (trying to cut down on sweets) and didn't really miss it. I did use a significantly increased amount of almond milk compared to what is called for in the recipe.  

We will have these again!!!