Lent is OVER!!!

Did everyone enjoy their Easter? I know I did. Being Catholic, Easter meant the end of Lent. My boyfriend gave up sweets for Lent. I gave up gluten (which needs to be a permanent thing, but I like food too much) and eating out at restaurants.

So, I haven't really been baking for over a month now.

In celebration of Easter, I made cake balls decorated like Easter eggs. I've made these many times now, but I'll still give Bakerella credit for the idea. If you haven't heard of Bakerella, shame on you. Go look at her cake balls and cake pops.

Cake balls= piece of cake. Make a cake. Let it cool. Mash it up with a container of frosting. Roll the mush into balls. Freeze them. Dip them in chocolate/ almond bark. Let them cool. Decorate.

Over spring break, a guy at Rocky Mountain Fudge in the Galleria mall made me write down the directions for these on the back of a receipt so he could make them. I tell you, these things are highly addicting, and if you are trying to be healthy, get rid of them ASAP or you'll be constantly tempted by the deceptively small size, unaware of how many you've eaten until the tray is almost empty. You've been warned.

This was the Easter basket I made for my boyfriend.

Vanilla cake balls in semi-sweet chocolate, chocolate cake balls in white chocolate.

And Thin Mints that he's never tried and didn't particularly like.

I had an Easter lunch of ham and other fixins with my family on Saturday. I had to drag my boyfriend to church Sunday morning (he was grumpy because of the people who only go to church twice a year), and then I spent Easter baking and laying around, and eating PIZZA from Papa John's and watching How I Met Your Mother with the boy.

Next on the agenda, I need a cheeseburger. It's been so long...

Brain Dead

I am brain dead. Really brain dead. I'm also quite ill, so that might have something to do with it. I hate being sick, with a passion. My nose is stuffed, throat is sore, and I'm mouth breathing... ew. I also get super needy and it's not fun. Did I also mention I become super brain dead?? I just was trawling through the archives of Confessions of A Cookbook Queen's blog for a good 45 minutes. It was good mindless entertainment. I need someone to bring me soup while I watch Dr Who sneak peeks and get judged or nosed violently by my rabbit.

Yikes. Judgmental beady-eyed albino rabbit.

But besides whining about being brain dead (which I keep misspelling), I actually have something to say.

So after my last post about being poor, I remembered something. I have enough ingredients to make angel food cake, which is my favorite food ever.

However, I decided to dress it up and make it fun this time around.

That is a lovely angel food cake covered with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut. It was so good. I half got the inspiration from Get Off Your Butt And Bake! who made a coconut cream cheese lime angel food cake.

So fluffy.

And, let me geek out about this for a second.

Love that more than anything. I'm such a nerd, but that's what makes good angel food cake.

Traditionally, angel food cake pans come with legs to help support the cake as you let it cool upside down so it doesn't deflate. Mine doesn't come with just spiffy legs, so I have to improvise with whatever I have laying around.

Tabasco to the rescue!

And then a few days ago I made these.

By the time I finally managed to take a picture they've been pretty much devoured. These are a batch of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. I got the recipe here at AllRecipes.com. They were really good, a little hard, but I think a little more butter could fix that.

My last week was pretty good. I also bought myself a new dress too. Again, I'm glad maxi dresses are still in style.

And it has pockets!

Well, I'm off to take more musinex and hope my sinus clear.

~H

Improvisation

Wow, it's been a while. I've been busy and pretty poor. No me gusta. So I haven't been able to upload as much baking/cooking pictures as I would like.

I have been doing a lot of cooking with whatever I can find in my pantry. Usually, this leads to why I think I could be a great chef, or one of the worst.

So, I suffer from this terrible habit when it comes to cooking. I improvise. A lot. I do it all the time, even with new recipes. Here is an example of said improvising recipe.

This WAS supposed to be oven baked fried chicken. Something looks off... It's not supposed to look like that! Mind you, I've never battered or fried anything so I'm pretty sure I had my processes wrong.

It still came out great and tasted pretty damn tasty, even though it looks like it hasn't been cooked at all.

So, in case anyone is actually wondering how to make it; here it is.

1 lb of skinless chicken breasts

1 c of Japanese Panko crumbs

1/3 c of whole wheat flour

1/2 c of liquid substitute egg (I used a real egg)

Salt and Pepper or your own seasoning, I used Sata seasonings from Penzy's.

Preheat to 425, bake for 25 minutes

Mix flour and seasoning in a gallaon bag, the panko bread crumbs in another, and the egg in a bowl.

First, place the chicken in the bag full of flour and seasoning and shake. Then take out and dip in the egg, and then the panko crumbs, and place into a pan and bake.

Spark Recipes "Fried" Chicken Recipe

~H