Typical Birthday Celebration

I made a beautiful cake for my grandmother's 80th birthday a few months ago. It was Special Birthday Cake with Vanilla Italian Buttercream Frosting and sprinkled with coconut. For those who hate coconut, there were plain cupcakes.

We had all just come from a big celebratory dinner where most of us had eaten steaks, but we still had ice cream and potato chips with dessert.

Luck O' The Irish

I made a lemon whiskey cake for St. Patrick's Day this year. It was an odd recipe from an Irish Heritage Cookbook. The "lemon" in the cake came from soaking lemon zest in whiskey (I used Jameson's, naturally) and then discarding the zest and using just the whiskey.

Although the cake contained almonds and the lemon-ated whiskey, it was kind of bland. Ha ha, a bland Irish recipe. Well, this (half) Irish lass isn't laughing, but she might add more flavorful ingredients if she makes it again.

Folksy Trio

I saw a great live concert the other night on what was possibly the hottest night of the year. The first performers were The Secret Sisters, Brandi Carlile was the opening act and the top-bill was Ray LaMontagne and The Pariah Dogs. If the show hasn't hit your town yet, I highly recommend catching it. It was pretty perfect from start to finish, although there was a minor gaffe where Ray forgot the words to a song (that was actually kind of cute.)

Here are some clips of the performers I saw, which are great, but pale in comparison to the live concert.

V-Day B-Day

Every Valentine's Day for the last dozen years has also been a birthday celebration for my oldest nephew. He had a very specific request for this year's birthday cake and for once(!) I got it exactly right. Chocolate layer cake with strawberry pieces baked inside the cake, chopped strawberries between the layers and sliced strawberries on top with a strawberry glaze.

I didn't think fresh strawberries would bake very well inside of the cake, so I used dried strawberries that I cut to raisin-sized pieces. I tossed them in flour before folding them into the batter to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake as it baked. It worked out rather nicely.

The little heart shaped mini-cakes were made without strawberries inside for those who don't like the combination of chocolate and strawberry.

Here's a view of the filling. Diced strawberries and strawberry glaze.

Chocolate covered strawberries, which were served on the side of the cake.

Madd Chefs

Madd Chefs
1091 Pearl Road, Suite C
Brunswick, Ohio 44212
330-225-7049
Dinner: December 31, 2010
Party of Five

This was the amuse bouche. Baguette topped with brie, candied walnuts and eggnog reduction(?) Sweet and savory.

Crisp greens tossed with maple balsamic vinaigrette and topped with cucumbers, tomatoes, Gorgonzola cheese, candied nuts and dried cranberries. (Modified description of the Bistro Pear and Gorgonzola Salad from the Madd Chef's website.) Good salad, but the tomatoes were unnecessary in my opinion. Maybe they work better with pears instead of cranberries.

Butternut squash ravioli and mushroom ravioli. I ruined this dish for one of the other diners when I joked that it was amazing what they could do with Campbell's mushroom soup. The squash one was the better of the two, although the mushroom might have been made with portobellos, which I don't really care for. They were also served only slightly warm so they may have been better hot.

Crab cake. I'm told it was good, but I don't like crab cakes, unfortunately.

Ribeye steak with cauliflower puree and asparagus. Definitely the best course of the night. Nice steak and tasty sides. This was also the only course where we were able to pick what we wanted. Oddly, most (all?) of us picked steak.

Eggnog canoli egg roll, dark chocolate dipped pineapple, chocolate banana torte topped with whipped cream and a raspberry.

Not pictured are the soup course and the apres-dessert glass of champagne with fresh raspberries. Overall a good meal. I would definitely go back and give it another try.

Thanksbaking

As usual, I baked a Red Velvet Cake for Thanksgiving. Unusually, I baked some rolls for dinner. Here's how the Buttery Pan Rolls looked:


They were melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Next time I'll try to make them all the same size.

I finally remembered to take a picture of a slice of cake. This piece shows off the nice contrast between the deep red cake and the bright white cream cheese frosting.

These are some of the last pictures taken with my old camera. My new camera has a food setting, which I hope will increase the quality of the pictures.

You're Invited!

I'm not sure about the tag line for this year's ceremony but I'm looking forward to James Franco in a tux. No color commentary since I'm crunched for time.

Picks in all caps and bold

BEST PICTURE
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are Alright
THE KING'S SPEECH
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem
Jeff Bridges
Jesse Eisenberg
COLIN FIRTH
James Franco

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening
Nicole Kidman
Jennifer Lawrence
NATALIE PORTMAN
Michelle Willams

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTIAN BALE
John Hawkes
Jeremy Renner
Mark Ruffalo
Geoffrey Rush

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams
Helena Bonham Carter
Melissa Leo
HAILEE STEINFELD
Jacki Weaver

BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)
TOM HOOPER (The King's Speech)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Another Tear
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are Alright
THE KING'S SPEECH

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan
Inception
THE KING'S SPEECH
The Social Network
True Grit

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
BIUTIFUL (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) (Algeria)

ANIMATED FEATURE
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
TOY STORY 3

EDITING
Black Swan
The Fighter
THE KING'S SPEECH
127 Hours
The Social Network

ART DIRECTION
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
INCEPTION
The King's Speech
True Grit

LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
NA WEWE
Wish 143

ANIMATED SHORT
DAY AND NIGHT
The Gruffalo
Let's Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar Carnet de Voyage

COSTUME DESIGN
Alice in Wonderland
I am Love
THE KING'S SPEECH
The Tempest
True Grit

MAKEUP
BARNEY'S VERSION
The Way Back
The Wolfman

ORIGINAL SCORE
How to Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King's Speech
127 Hours
THE SOCIAL NETWORK

ORIGINAL SONG
Coming Home from Country Strong
I See the Light from Tangled
IF I RISE from 127 Hours
We Belong Together from Toy Story 3

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name
POSTER GIRL
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warior of Qiugang

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
Gasland
Inside Job
Rest Repo
Wasteland

SOUND MIXING
Inception
THE KING'S SPEECH
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

SOUND EDITING
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: LEGACY
True Grit
Unstoppable

VISUAL EFFECTS
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Hereafter
INCEPTION
Iron Man 2