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Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Recap

I find myself with a few minutes of time as the hubby is quite entertained by his new video game right now. Christmas for us started on Friday when we went to Jerame's aunt and uncle's house. We ended up spending the day with his aunt and uncle, their son and his wife, and Jerame's mother. We spent most of the day over there, enjoying finger foods and some wine. There was also quite a bit of Rock Band on Friday as well. On Saturday, we arrived at Jerame's mother's house in the early afternoon to spend the day with his mother and his sister and her family. Before we had a wonderful dinner that his mom fixed up, the whole family opened up presents and watched football. Later in the evening however, we ended up back at his aunt's house. It was a crazy evening, with more Rock Band, Karoke, and Uno Attack! Definitely some imbibing of the ol' alcohol that night! Needless to say, after a crazy couple of days, it was nice to spend yesterday at home. It was a very Merry Christmas indeed! A few pictures to sum up the holiday:

Joyce's Christmas Tree
Me and Gizmo
Whole family photo
Gavin is a big fan of Thor
Brock is ready to get serious about his dental health
A girl after my own heart, loves her Barbies
Later on at Martha's. We all got into karoke!
Girl's just wanna have fun :)
Great pic of the photographer for the night
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

The Hubby and I's 2nd Christmas in Kentucky turned out great! For us, it's been a whirlwind over the last couple of days. The Christmas festivities with Jerame's family started all day Friday and went all day Saturday. We had a great time with family and lucky for me, Jerame took some pictures. Today, being Christmas day, we were so exhausted from the last 2 days that we decided to take the day for ourselves and stay home with our boys and watch Christmas movies. It was a much needed day of rest. The cookies went over splendidly, I received a lot of compliments on them. I had previously been a little worried that I didn't make enough cookies, but there turned out to be more than enough. So much so that my cookie tins were overflowing!

The cookies all packaged and ready to be delivered
One of the cookie tins
I will be sure to write about Christmas and post some pictures later in the week. Hopefully tomorrow, but the hubby is on vacation this week so I have a feeling blogging isn't something I will be doing a lot of this week :)

Friday, December 23, 2011

Final Results

Yesterday was Day 3 of cookies and it was a success! I am done now. I have cookies coming out of my ears but I think it will be a nice arrangement once the cookies are divided and packaged. The cookies up yesterday were Vanilla Bean Shortbread and Snickerdoodles. I inadvertently left the 2 easiest cookies till yesterday. The shortbread was easy because let's face it, there are very few ingredients and steps with shortbread. The snickerdoodles were easy because I had already done 2 practice runs. Both turned out pretty tasty.
Vanilla Bean Shortbread
Snickerdoodles
The Hubby is NOT a fan of the shortbread. I liked it. It's a low sugar cookie so the other ingredients must stand out. It's got a nice buttery, flaky taste that had a very subtle hint of vanilla. I also like how you can see the little specks of vanilla bean in the shortbread. The Hubby LOVES the Snickerdoodles however. I made a double batch since I knew that would be his go-to munching cookie. All in all, it was a successful cookie baking experience. Maybe there is a little bit of baker in me after all?
Cookies, cookies, and oh yeah, more cookies!
Here are the recipes I used: Vanilla Bean Shortbread and Snickerdoodles.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

More Cookie Talk

Day 2 of cookies commenced yesterday. After a frustrating morning, the final results came out of the oven looking better than expected! A lot better! My first cookie I attempted was the Peppermint Pinwheel. I don't know if it was the recipe I used or the fact that this recipe employed techniques not often used by me but I did not end up with pinwheels. I really should have done a test run on these. Sigh. This cookie involves dividing the dough in half, rolling out each half into a rectangle, inverting one dough on the other, and finally rolling all the dough, jelly-roll style. Well, my dough was pretty crumbly and I had a very difficult time rolling it out and then an equally difficult time rolling the two doughs together. I also wasn't thinking and shaped the dough logs more like ovals than rounds. Not to mention it took almost 2 hours to make this dough! After baking the cookies and taste testing, they tasted pretty good. Like a minty sugar cookie. They also have a nice marble effect. So out of this mess, Peppermint Marble Cookies were born. They will work for this year.

Peppermint Marble Cookies
My other cookie yesterday was the Salted Caramel Brownies which I was initially worried about. The batter was sooooo thick! I have never seen brownie batter like that! I continued  on though and I am glad I did. The brownies turned out wonderful. The thick batter made for a chewier brownie. It is the salted caramel layer on the brownies that is to die for though! I will be making these again. And again. And again. Highly recommend :)

Salted Caramel Brownies
You can find the recipes I used here: Peppermint Pinwheels and Salted Caramel Brownies. Up today is Snickerdoodles and Vanilla Bean Shortbread!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Life is a Cookie

Snowballs (White Chocolate and Chocolate) and Two Layer Pecan Caramel Bars
After Day 1 of Christmas cookie baking in the Jarrell household, it is Jessica 1, Cookies 0.  Haha. I decided this year for Christmas that I wanted to give Jerame's family homemade cookies. I have never attempted Christmas cookies before, seeing as how every year prior to this one I have been working 60 hour weeks around the holidays and barely even had time to BUY people presents. I have picked out 6 different cookies to make and decided I would make 2 a day for 3 days, starting yesterday which was Tuesday. Friday the cookies begin getting delivered. Day 1 was Snowballs and Pecan Bars. It was a long day, I finally finished up at 6:45 pm. It took so long because there were 7 batches of the Snowballs! The hubby tasted tested both cookies when he got home and he gave a big thumbs up to both, although he went crazy over the Pecan Bars. I expected that. Here are the recipes for  both: White Chocolate Snowballs and Two-Layer Caramel-Pecan Bars. Up today is Salted Caramel Brownies and Peppermint Pinwheels!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Our family tree. Our red curtains work perfectly for Christmas!
Christmas is only 10 days away! I am very excited, I love the holiday season. Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday, but Christmas is not far behind. I love seeing all the Christmas lights on houses, Christmas tree's in windows, and not to mention having my own tree up! I have stocked up on everything for holiday baking, minus getting more eggs and more butter. I thought I had enough butter till I checked my recipes one last time and realized I might have to double some of my cookie recipes, especially my sandwich cookies.
I am probably a week out from starting on the cookies for Christmas but I am like a little kid. I want to make cookies now! I was itching to bake today so I decided to whip up another holiday treat. While browsing Cooking Light's website, I saw egg nog cupcakes. This of course led to a scouring of the internet to find a well-reviewed recipe. I found a wonderful blog, Dollhouse Bake Shoppe Blog. I decided to use their delicious sounding recipe. While mine don't look like their professional picture, I think mine looks pretty good!
Egg Nog Cupcake with Cream Cheese-Egg Nog-Rum frosting. Dusted with nutmeg.
The cake in these cupcakes is very unique. I don't think I have had one like it. The cake is super light and fluffy. Like putting air in your mouth. The recipe calls for a tbsp of vegetable oil, which I don't normally put in my cupcakes. This could account for the change in texture but another thought I had was it might be the egg nog? Whatever it is, I enjoyed it. They are very rich though so one cupcake is plenty. A good holiday treat in my book! You can find the recipe I used here, Egg Nog Cupcakes.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

New Beginnings

It was a rough week last week. Lots of little headaches gave way to a migraine on Saturday that is persisting. Grr. Worst time of the year to get a migraine, I have way too much to do! Exciting news though... Jerame started his new job yesterday! I am so proud of him! It was an incredibly hard process, finding a good stable job in this economy. Needless to say, Jerame has been walking on water since he found out he got the job and he could barely contain his excitement all weekend before he started yesterday. He will be making a lot more than what he was making before, not to mention all the perks that come from working for a big company i.e. health insurance, 401K, steady hours, and available overtime. This opportunity will really start a new chapter in our lives and we are ready! In the meantime, I am hoping this migraine goes away and I can continue getting ready for Christmas!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Album Review: Nickelback's Here and Now

Nickelback's "Here and Now"
Nickelback is one of my most favorite bands. I take a lot of crap for liking them too. People everywhere have nothing but bad things to say about them. Well, guess what? I. Don't. Care. Detroit's online petition to have Nickelback NOT perform at the Thankgiving game against Green Bay? Laughable. It's true. People can say what they want to say, but I think Nickelback's album and concert sales speak for themselves.
This is their 7th album and I think it is what Nickelback fans have come to expect. The album is a combination of hard rock, rock ballads, and their typical pop songs that will probably be released on the radio. Most of Nickelback's pop music, I don't like. "How You Remind Me", "Photograph", and all their socially concious songs i.e. "If Everyone Cared", "If Today Was Your Last Day", and "When We Stand Together" are in my opinion the songs Nickelback releases to get pop hits. What I like about Nickelback is their hard rock. I fell in love with their "All The Right Reasons" album after hearing "Follow You Home", "All The Wrong Reasons", and "Next Contestant". My favorites on the "Dark Horse" album are the hardest hitting, "Burn It To The Ground", "Something In Your Mouth", and "Shakin' Hands". This latest album is no different for me.
The album opens with what is probably my new favorite song, "This Means War". I love, love, love the punch it packs. My next favorite on the album is definitely "Kiss It Goodbye", a hard rock anthem exploring the difference between the East and West Coasts. This album also has the typical Nickelback ballads and slow songs. I find that I actually like "Lullaby", a song that speaks to anyone going through a rough time. The song on the album that I think is most likely to be a pop hit is either "Lullaby" or "Don't Ever Let It End". "Don't Ever Let It End" I also surprisingly like. The lyrics are sweet and Chad's voice flows melodically on it.
All in all, it is a good album. Nothing has really taken the place as my favorite as "All The Right Reasons", but if you like Nickelback, you will like this album.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Night 5: A Week of Salads

Last night was our last night of salads and I saved the best for last. I made Chicken Panzanella last night and it was good! Panzanella means "bread salad". The hubby said it was his favorite of the week.

Chicken Panzanella
Here is what's in this one:

1- boneless skinless chicken breast
2 cups of diced ciabatta bread (4 oz)
2 large tomatoes, diced
2 stalks of celery, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 cup of roughly chopped basil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste

I seasoned the chicken breast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and then grilled the chicken breast. Let it rest for 10 minutes and then dice. I tossed the bread cubes with some garlic olive oil and put the bread cubes on a cookie sheet under the broiler, stirring often. I cooked those about 3-4 minutes. Combine diced chicken, tomato, celery, cucumber, and basil in a large salad boil. Combine olive oil and red wine vinegar, stirring with a whisk. Add the bread to the salad mixture and then drizzle salad with dressing. Toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
I will add that it is so worth the extra time of toasting the bread. I have made this several times without toasting the bread, this was the first time I toasted the bread. It was amazing! It really makes all the difference in the world! This is a good one and I will admit, more filling than a lot of my other salads this week. But we finished our detox and are looking forward to some real food next week :)

Friday, December 2, 2011

Night 4: A Week of Salads

It was night 4 of salads in the Jarrell household. We are continuing on ahead but I for one am looking forward to leaving this detox in the past. Not that I don't love salad, I do. But it's time for some chicken parmesan or something! Anyways, last night was was Pasta Salad with Tuna, Olives, and Parsley.

Pasta Salad with Tuna, Olives, and Parsley
This one is really easy to make, plus you can toss in whatever leftover vegetables or herbs you have in the fridge. Here are the ingredients:

Salt and pepper
  • 1 pound curly pasta such as fusilli
  • 1/2 cup olive oil $
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • pint cherry tomatoes, halved $
  • 12-oz. can oil-packed chunk light tuna, drained, flaked $
  • 1/2 cup pitted black olives, chopped
  • 1/2 small red onion, sliced $
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
The directions are to cook the pasta according to box directions. Run under cool water when pasta is done. Whisk together the olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Combine all ingredients (including dressing) in a large mixing bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The only changes I make are to omit the onion (obviously) and I sub green olives for the black olives. This is a tasty one.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Night 3: A Week of Salads

Last night I decided to take it really easy. Jerame had been clamoring for a night of just garden salad so that's what I did (What can I say? The man loves salad!). I made just a Classic Garden Salad and served it with some  brown and serve rolls I had leftover from Thanksgiving. It was a very light dinner, perfect for a detox week.

Classic Garden Salad
My garden salad consists of lettuce, tomato, croutons, green olives, pepperoncini's, light Italian dressing and fresh grated parmesan cheese. I add the red onions on the side as the Hubby will not eat raw onions. Both Jerame and I have noticed since we started our detox that we feel soooo much better. Our plan is working :)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A Week of Salads

The Hubby and I have been feeling a little... weighed down after the Thanksgiving holiday. We ate great on Thanksgiving but it was downhill after that. On Friday, we ate lunch at a restaurant and pizza for dinner. On Saturday, we ate Friday's leftovers. On Sunday, we ate stadium food at the NFL game which included hamburgers, fries, soft pretzels, and more than one vodka drink. Ugh. Needless to say, we decided to detox our bodies after this horrible weekend of eating. Jerame suggested salads all week which I initially balked at but the more I thought about it, the more I thought 'Why not?'. So here we are. I forgot to take a picture of Monday's entree, but I made Chicken Cobb Salad. It was yummy not to mention full of the good stuff i.e. vitamins, nutrients, protein, etc. The recipe is from Cooking Light so I do have a professional picture of the salad.

Cooking Light's Chicken Cobb Salad
Tuesday night was Cavatappi with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Feta. I love a good pasta salad so I thought this was fantastic! And I did take a picture of this one.

Cavatappi with Spinach, Chickpeas, and Feta
This one is super easy to make. Here are the ingredients:

  • 8 cups chopped spinach
  • 8 cups hot cooked cavatappi (12 ounces uncooked)
  • 1 cup crumbed feta cheese
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 2 (19 ounce) cans of chickpeas
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed

The directions are to mix all ingredients in a large salad bowl. And you are done! I did alter the recipe in the following way. Since it was for 2, I cooked about 8 ounces of pasta (I do like leftover pasta salad for lunch the next day). I also only used 1 can of chickpeas and added 1 large tomato, diced. I mixed the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper separately with a whisk and used that as dressing. I also included the zest of the lemon I juiced in the salad. At the end of the day this was light, refreshing, and pretty darn tasty. I highly recommend this one.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-Up

Thanksgiving was fantastic this year. It was my first Thanksgiving in Kentucky and we had a great time with family, food, and football (My 3 F's of Thanksgiving). Some pictures to wrap up our holiday:

Pouring the oil in the pot
Lighting the turkey burner (appropriate name today!)
Jerame and Joyce
Me and the Hubby
Our little family
Jerame making the bread for dinner 
Rubbing the bird, getting ready for the drop!
About to drop the bird!
The bird is safely in the oil. 45 minutes later, that bird was done and tasty!
I wish I had taken a picture of the finished turkey! It was a gorgeous bird and it was delicious! The outside skin was crispy and flavorful and the meat was juicy, moist, and oh-so-good! My pecan pie also turned out fantastic!

First pie I have ever made!
The rest of our holiday weekend was jam packed as well. Friday, Jerame's cousin and his wife came to our house to visit and we had a great time. We went down to a local restaurant and enjoyed drinks and some food before coming back to our house to play games and drink some more. It was a fun night! On Saturday, we returned to Jerame's mother's house to help her get her Christmas decorations out and put up her tree. This took most of the morning and afternoon and by the time we got home, it was civil war time! It was the perfect civil war (if you are a Duck fan that is!) with the Ducks winning it. The Ducks will now play in the Pac 12 Championship game and should they win (and they definitely should!), they will go to the Rose Bowl. Not bad Duckies! On Sunday, Jerame and I were lucky enough to get free tickets to the Bengals/Brown's game in Cincinnati. This was my first NFL game and it was awesome! The Bengals stadium is so different than any college stadium I have ever seen and just the fact that I was seeing in person what I have been watching on TV since I was 10 was amazing. The hubby and I are definitely looking forward to attending more NFL games in the future hopefully. It was a busy weekend, I think you can see why it took me so long to get back to my blog :)

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Gobble Gobble!

I have been meaning to blog for the last couple of days, but it has just not happened! To be honest, my to-do list almost always takes precedence over blogging and for the past week at the end of the day, the blogging has fallen by the wayside. So this morning, I put my blog on my to-do list! I have been running around like a crazy person getting ready for Thanksgiving. I am feeling a little bittersweet this year. Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays but this will be my first Thanksgiving in 28 YEARS that I have not been home with my parents. Wow. Like I said, bittersweet milestone. The hubby and I are having Thanksgiving at his mother's house this year. It should be a small celebration and I am ok with that! Jerame has taken on the task of the turkey, which he plans to deep fry. I volunteered to make my garlic mashed potatoes. Yum! I have adapted my recipe from a cooking light recipe and they are yummy!

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Here is my recipe. The ingredients you will need (this recipe serves 8 by the way):

4 garlic heads (you can use 2 but we like to really taste the garlic in ours)
2 1/2 lbs of red potatoes
1/4 cup of butter
1/3 cup of low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup of low fat sour cream
2 tbsp of minced parsley
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel the garlic heads and wrap in aluminum foil. When oven is preheated, place aluminum packets in oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool (this takes a while). Once cool, squeeze the garlic out of the heads and reserve roasted garlic.
Cut potatoes in half or if they are large potatoes, into fourths. Place potatoes in pot and cover with 1 inch of water. Salt water if desired. Bring water to a boil, then lower heat and simmer potatoes for 12-15 minutes. Pierce potato with fork to check tenderness. Remove potatoes from heat and drain water.
I usually then put the potatoes in a mixing boil. Add the reserved garlic and butter. Using a hand mixer, smash the butter and garlic into the potatoes. Add a little of the buttermilk and begin mixing on low. Once mixing, add in the rest of the buttermilk, the sour cream, the parsley, and then the salt and pepper. Be careful not to over mix. The mixing process honestly takes less than 1 minute. I usually taste test the potatoes at this point and add more seasoning if needed (I find that I never add more salt and pepper). 
You're done and you have DELISH potatoes.

I am also in charge of making pecan pie and my mother's clam dip. I will be making both of those tomorrow and definitely planning on taking pictures to blog about since it will be my first time making either! Eek! Hopefully all goes well.

Monday, November 14, 2011

My Christmas Playlist

I was planning on making snicker doodles this afternoon and then blogging about it but the day slipped away from me! I guess snicker doodles will have to wait for tomorrow. I know it is not Christmas time yet but I am feeling it this year! I am quickly becoming very prepared to make Christmas cookies, I can't wait to put the tree up, and I already made my Christmas playlist! I only put 20 songs on there for now but I may continue to add as I come across more of my favorite Christmas songs.  As with all my music, there is no explaining why I like what I do, I just do. Without further ado, here is my Christmas playlist:

1. Last Christmas- Taylor Swift
2. All I Want For Christmas is You- Mariah Carey
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town- Bruce Springsteen
4. Santa Baby- Kellie Pickler
5. Christmas/Sarajevo- Trans-Siberian Orchestra
6. Hey Santa- Wilson Phillips
7. Winter Wonderland- Brooks and Dunn
8. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer- George Strait
9. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!- Jessica Simpson
10. Holly Jolly Christmas- Faith Hill
11. Deck the Halls- Relient K
12. Blue Christmas- Elvis Presley 
13. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree- Toby Keith
14. Baby, it's Cold Outside- Lee Ann Womack
15. Silent Night- Sugarland
16. My Only Wish (This Year)- Britney Spears
17. Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy- Travis Tritt
18. Jingle Bell Rock- Rascal Flatts
19. The Christmas Song- LeAnn Rimes
20. The Chanukah Song (1994)- Adam Sandler

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Best in the Tri State? Epic Fail!

I hold no illusions about the area in which I live. As a serious foodie, this area of the country is a little bit of a joke when it comes to fresh and delicious food. Ashland is chock full of the chain restaurants that serve frozen food. This is ok, but every now and then I want something amazing! Hard to find here. Well, last week I got a mini-magazine in the mail titled "Best in the Tri-State". I was skeptical but couldn't resist taking a look.


The first section of this magazine were the "winners" for restaurants in the area. I am not joking, but McDonald's was actually voted "Best Breakfast" in one county. Really?!? I should send that one in to SNL for Seth Myer's "Really?!?!" series.

Sorry, Kentucky. Photographic evidence does not lie.
The next item I was appalled by? Well, I mean other than having a buffet category! The chicken category. And who was #1 in 3 counties? KFC. Ewwww.

That Katie's Corner in Boyd county? Not a chain or fast food joint! Go Boyd County!
One more item before I throw this piece of trash out with exasperation. The pizza category. I will just post the picture and you can decide what's wrong with it :)

If Little Caesar's has the best pizza, it is indeed a sad, sad world we live in.
There you have it fellow foodies. I am sure this list does NOT inspire you to come visit the Tri-State area looking for fantastic food. I guess I will have to open my own restaurant to show people how good FRESH food tastes!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Good times in the ol' KY

Well, it has been a considerable amount of time since I last wrote. I am blaming the husband. Just kidding! Seriously though, we have been put through the wringer the last month! On Jerame's birthday last month (Oct 6!), he found out he had an interview for a really good job with a stable company. The interview was scheduled for October 13th. Needless to say, we prepared like crazy and Jerame was nervous as all get out. Anyways the day came and Jerame killed the interview, which began the waiting game. And did we wait! I really haven't been able to concentrate much for the last couple of weeks, much less sit down and blog. We found out last week however that the job was Jerame's! The company is now in the process of checking his background and we are hoping that Jerame starts at the beginning of December. This news couldn't have come at a better time! After struggling for the last year since we moved here, we both felt it was time for something to go our way! Hopefully my concentration will be back to normal this week. Seriously, my couponing suffered while I was distracted! That was a joke (actually, not really).

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Product Review: John Frieda Dry Shampoo

I have extremely dry, coarse hair so I really can only wash it twice a week or else it feels like straw. I rely on dry shampoo the rest of the week. I am always on the look out for good dry shampoo since I use so much of it and believe me, I have tried almost every single brand out there. I recently bought some of the John Frieda variety since it was on sale and I hadn't tried it yet.
John Frieda Dry Shampoo
For a drugstore variety, I was pretty pleased with this stuff. It definitely does the job and it didn't leave that stiff, crispy feeling that some dry shampoos give you. My complaint is the smell! Yuck! You would think with all the advances in dry shampoo they would have done something about the smell. I have tried other varieties that work and smell better.
Kenra Dry Shampoo. 1st place in my book! This also doesn't give hair that crispy feeling and smells great.
TIGI Rockaholic Dry Shampoo. 2nd place in my book. This dry shampoo definitely gave me the most volume of any dry shampoo but this definitely gives hair a stickier feeling that I think dry shampoo should.
Johnson's Baby Powder. In a pinch? This works fantastic. It absorbs the oil, has no smell, and is definitely the cheapest option. I fall back on this when I am out of dry shampoo and I can't find any on sale :)
This goes on my blog as the worst dry shampoo I have ever tried. I don't think it did anything, it definitely didn't absorb any oil at my roots.
The verdict? I will probably stick with the John Frieda dry shampoo from now on and hopefully, they improve on the smell. While my favorite is Kenra, a bottle is about $15 while the John Frieda retails for between $6-$8 and with coupons, I can get it for free :)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Boston Creme Pie: Round 2

So the hubby requested Boston Creme Pie for his birthday. I had only attempted the Boston once before and the results were less than appetizing. So I was nervous making the cake for Jerame's family but it all turned out for the best. My custard was not overcooked this time and my cakes rose. I did have a snafu with the ganache as my first ganache separated. I had to run the store to get more ganache supplies but my second ganache turned out perfectly! I've made ganache many, many times and I have never had one separate. Oh well, it all worked and the cake was delish!

Infusing the milk with vanilla bean

The finished custard going into the fridge to chill

Cake going into the oven

Cake mess!

The finished cakes cooling

After putting the custard between the cakes

Dark chocolate for the ganache

The finished cake

Ready to eat! Yum!