Birthday cake

Boxed cake, prepared frosting.  Four layers, alternating lemon/chocolate, the chocolate layers infused with Grand Marnier.  Mandarin Orange filling, glaze made from the syrup. Lettering, chocolate ganache from chocolate chips and heavy cream squeezed from a plastic sandwich bag.

Well, there you have it.  All I can add at this point nyom nom nom nyom *licks fingers* nyom non nom  nyon is it's abso nyom nyom nom nom  smack lutely nom nom nom delicious.

Garbanzo beans in spicy tomato sauce

I made a mistake by buying a case of tomato sauce instead of a case of tomatoes.

Dry garbanzo beans from the bulk bins at Whole Foods.  Canned is easier but I like watching them swell. Plus I could plant them if I felt like it, for fun. After they were soaked they were pressure cooked on low.  

The brown rice was also cooked in the pressure cooker.  Brown rice takes a lot longer than white rice.  

Split chicken breast, balcony vegetables

What can I do with these? I have no idea what kind of peppers these are, but I'll use them anyway.

They weren't the slightest bit hot. I should have put cayenne in my sauce to compensate.  This split chicken breast was much better than the one similar to it that I had at Dave and Buster's yesterday. No bragging here, just facts. My vegetables are more interesting too. Okay fine, brag sand facts.

Polenta

My quick cooking grits are almost gone so I tried this with milled yellow corn from the bulk bins at Whole Foods. Surprisingly, it cooks just as fast as the quick grits. There's very little difference. Cooked with a can of chicken broth; 2 pt. broth to 1 pt. corn meal. Grated semi-hard cheese added at the end

Onion and celery sweated with butter. One Tablespoon flour added at finish to form a dry crumbly roux. Added garlic powder, cayenne pepper powder, Vindaloo curry powder cooked for a few minutes then added a second can of prepared chicken broth. Forms a thin sauce.  Shelled a handful of shrimp and a few scallops, thawed while this was going on, cut the scallops and dumped the whole lot into the sauce at the end.  Then cook until the shrimp turn color, just  a few minutes, removed from heat and served immediately.

This dish is hot and spicy. Prepared within 15 minutes.

Cherokee Purple