"Chocolate Mint Frenzy"

And yes, it tastes even better than it looks!

Quick post tonight- since I'm about to make ANOTHER chocolate mint cake tonight!  I have started another unofficial baking challenge, this time called the "Holidaze




Bake-Off Challenge" where I try new recipes every week and have testers (AKA roommates, friends, and creepy-strange-hobo-regulars who sit on our corner) decide on what is the best/their favorite/the richest, biggest tummy-ache-inducing concoction.  I sure hope the ones following this insanely delicious and tantalizing chocolate cake can do fair Justice up against this beast.  I stole the recipe and tweeked to my liking from a traditional Southern Living recipe.  Consisting of warm chocolate cake (made especially divine by using a secret ingredient- sour cream), minty buttercream frosting with Andes Peppermints, and a glazed Chocolate Ganache to complete the presentation, I have never tasted anything so rich in my life.  Pops even exclaimed after tasting the cake, "Mmmm, Carrie, now this is some good cake.  Now how much of it did you make yourself?", and I had to laugh out loud... it is that good, y'all!  To impress any family member, disbelieving Father or just yourself, I highly suggest making this cake.  Here's to chocolate, mint, and pure decadence!

Our tree!

PS, kick your diets out the door, ladies.

"Giardino Vegetarian Lasagna"

  I'm not sure what attributes to strange food cravings when I work night shifts, but it never seems to dissipate until I have satisfied such cravings.  This past Friday, while working a most-exciting night shift, I started to think about how great a vegetarian lasagna would taste right around the three o'clock hour.  Since I do not eat red meat, and since I had no lasagna recipes other than ones that contain beef (sorry Mom and my entire Southern-cultured family), I decided to bake the dish that Saturday.  It quickly became apparent that I did not want to follow any to an exact "T" so I thought it'd be best to get original, toss all twelve recipes together, and create my own "hodgepodge" vegetarian lasagna.

"Project Turkey: Here's to a Most Successful Bountiful Goodness"

Mission accomplished!  After an encouraging mental kick in the butt and, yes, help from Brad (thank you!) I went onto "Veni, Vidi, Vici" that turkey and get it in the oven prepped and ready to go early Sunday morning.  I was not quite sure how to properly "stuff" it, but I thought, hmm, anything seasoned would taste fine, so in/on went an onion, rosemary, thyme, parsley, extra virgin olive oil (that would later attribute to a FAIL'ed gravy attempt), salt/pepper/oregano, carrots, and lots of chicken broth.  Oh, and did I mention that I honestly had no idea what a turkey baster was used for besides collegiate activities involving gin and buckets; I think I'm growing up... 

Every thirty minutes I would check in on my bird.  This would also call for me basting it, and I have to be honest, Brad and our friend Alex (who were spending the afternoon in the living room practicing physical therapy lab skills) enjoyed basting the turkey too (it's a catchy activity, not going to lie).  Finally, exactly six hours after I had put the turkey in the oven we took it out.  I have to say, that bird did not look as scary cooked to a crisp golden brown as it did in the raw.  Around 7:00, with everyone present we carved the turkey and gave some sweet thanks.  

So to recap...

Goal: A Cooked, Tender 22-lb Domesticated 1st-Class Turkey

Time frame: One week

Project Leader: Me

Project "Guinea Pigs": Annual Thanksgiving Dinner Attendees (AKA my amazing friends & family)

End Result: Unknown

Casualties: Minus my fat turkey, None (as of yet)

In conclusion... 

Goal: A Cooked, Tender 22-lb Domesticated 1st-Class Turkey

Time Frame: One week, one prep night, six hours to cook

Project Leader: Me

Project Participants/Supporters: Everyone

End Results:  SUCCESS!

Casualties: Minus my fat turkey, none (phew)

I could not have done this project without the help from my roommates, Nikki, my grandmother, and my mom.  Y'all withstood many nights of complaints and even a near-crying moment (Brad, I'm no longer afraid of the insides, I promise).  I'm not sure if I will do this turkey challenge Part II next year, since I will be honest and say it took a great deal of preparation, time, energy, and research.  However, the end results were perfect, and it tasted as good as it looked!  So, in conclusion, I guess the only thing that I can say is that I'm, well, thankful.  Thankful for my friends, family, and prepared turkeys from Boston Market for future thanksgiving meals.  Here's to a successful thanksgiving, and in the words of my father, I suggest that everyone partake in the following action with their loved ones this week, "Let's give some thanks for the good food, great meat, and now great God let's eat."

"Project Turkey Part III"

So I'm beginning to think I cannot finish this project.  I just attempted to cut out the giblets and neck, and I nearly screamed the entire way through.  Thank goodness no one else is home right now, because I would have embarrassed myself drastically.  I wonder why this bird is freaking me out so much, when I see crazy things everyday in the PICU.  Hmm.  Maybe I'm not cut out for this after all.  I will try again tomorrow, hoping I can at least get the necessary parts out and have everything seasoned. ... and maybe tomorrow I won't put on two pairs of medical non-latex gloves for "protection" from the insides.  Really, Carrie, get real.  Let's finish what we've started and suck it up.  Enough for now.  Time for a Golden Monkey.

"Project Turkey Part II"

So apparently I have my work cut out for me.  Let me just begin by saying this: Mom/Grandma/Nana and all other women of the world: I salute you for the accomplishment of an intimidating feat that you master every single year during these holiday months.  I never appreciated how much time and energy it takes to create such an edible Holiday centerpiece.  While everyone agrees that the best turkeys taste both tender and divine, I think most take for granted what we, the chefs, see as an unmatchable success.  So for all the years that I only nibbled at a few bites of pulled turkey drenched within a thicket of gravy, I now say THANK YOU!

A turkey roaster currently on loan from my grandmother's kitchen storage pantry.

Back in the kitchen today... instead of the flimsy foil pan that I purchased at the supermarket for 0.99 (which only yesterday I honestly thought would hold the turkey... dumb, I know)  it was suggested to me to use a real large (and I'm not exaggerating when I say large) turkey roaster.  Upon attempting to put it in my oven earlier this evening, I quickly realized I will not be able to use the lid while it bakes... because it is simply too big for our basic oven.  I have decided that I will just let it cook open to air until it turns a nice golden-brown color and throw tin-foil on top while the middle continues to roast.

As long it does not come out looking like this I will be happy!

"Project Turkey (AKA Here's to Hoping for Bountiful Goodness)" Part I

The Thanksgiving season has arrived.  The time of year when mildly warm days and chilly nights create a mood unlike any other throughout the year.  Perhaps it's just me, but I feel as if I have noticed these Autumn days more so than I ever have before, and I seem to appreciate them all the more.  So, in case you have not yet stepped outside for a moment of quiet reflection on the gorgeous a-la-naturale that Mother Nature has so graciously granted us this year, I suggest taking a walk within the next few days before the last of the colored leaves bid farewell.

"The Flannel Ordeal"

The Backdrop:

It is now the middle of October, and while the gusty winds continue to roll in with transitional colors of the crunchy leaves slowly making their way to the ground, the temperatures have not proven to display the arrival of Autumn in the mid-Atlantic region of Virginia.  I know two months from now, as I'm sitting bundled up on the couch, mug in hand and a fleece blanket wrapped ever-so-tightly around my frozen body, I will wish the dog days of Summer would be present once more.  However, because it is October and because I, personally, feel it a faux pas to walk around in flip flops and tank tops without some sort of Fall accessory in hand, I am happy to report that the flannel has only made one appearance, thus far, in my household.  While I know it is an essential textile to keep warm on those chilly nights, I'm not so sure just how appealing it is on the bodies of men other than cowboy-riding, rodeo-rough-housin' male entities.  

"What's in a Name?"

As the great William Shakespeare once wrote, "What's in a name?  That which we call a rose;  By any other name would smell as sweet?," I dedicate the following post as my own interpretation of the well-known phrase, blog style, of course:

I am well certain that good ol' Shakespeare never intended for his simple and elegant poetry to ever contribute to the Carrie Bradshaw-influenced-and-over-eccentric world of style; but let's be honest, if the pun fits I'm using it, and as much as I'm seeing initialized, name-imprinted jewelry in today's trendy happenings, I can say I'm accurate when "borrowing" beautiful literature to describe a true foundational entity of Fashion.  To this day, I continue to stand firm in my belief that no matter how one wears or displays their sense of style, one's own name and initials will always surface to tell a story about that person, their heritage, their familial pride, and a natural identity.

"Colours/505 of Fall"

  Recently I have been ravishing over Sara Bareilles' newest album, entitled "Kaleidoscope Heart", from which, without a doubt, this blog's title more than likely originated.  While I'm not too positive that my roommates enjoy it as much as I do, especially when I enter "repeat" mode and decide to play the entire album over and over again until I have perfected each lyric with precise accuracy, there is much to ponder in her sweet-sung words.  There is no rhyme or reason as to why I feel like a young girl again when I listen to her music, but something makes me want to spin around the room on my tippy toes with a energy and girlish-twirls.  In her title song, she reveals a short message about the sweet colors of life, perhaps also implying that the energies that derive within us do not merely encapsulate reddish hues from the heart, but more that they make up a person with colorful individuality and vigor.

"Transition"

  Transition, by concrete and literal definition, means "a movement, passage or change from one position, state, stage, subject, concept, etc. to another."  While these descriptive words grasp a sound meaning on such a simple word, I realize that this word holds a deeper substance that is fairly applicable to our lives within any given moment.   No doubt, it is transition that spins the spokes of Life's ever-changing wheel of fate.  With every breath we take, every decision we make, every moment that passes within our lives, each and every one of us faces transition and change.  It is merely the choice of the individual as to whether or not he or she will accept the gift (or hardship) it bestows.  No matter where transition is experienced, it is always received, and it is something that will continue to be a part of all our lives until we take our last breaths on this earth.