TWD: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

I like the concept of Tuesdays with Dorie. I really do. But the practical aspects of baking a delicious new dessert every week - on top of trying to shed excess weight - is what gives me pause.

That's where I was when this week's choice came up: the Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte. It sounded scrumptious, but what was I going to do with a huge brownie torte in the house? I came this close to passing when I realized that this recipe fell on the same week as my birthday.

Voila! Instant birthday cake.

Note the mad birthday around the cake, in the form of copious beer bottles/wine glasses.

And thank goodness, too, because this thing was spectacular. For serious. One of the best things I've ever baked (and that's kinda saying something.)

The bottom layer is a dense, rich brownie, laced with dried cherries plumped in kirsch and glazed in cherry preserves. It's also dotted throughout the batter with chunks of bittersweet chocolate. The top layer is a mascarpone/cream cheese mousse. The creamy, barely-sweetened mousse is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet, heavy brownie.

In a word: Awesome.

It comes together fairly easily, but you have to plan ahead. I made the brownie in the morning, and the mousse about 5pm, and then stuck it in the fridge until my midnight serving time. Both the brownie and mousse are easy to make, but you have to give plenty of cooling off and resting time, and quite frankly, even after seven hours in the fridge the mousse was rather soft. The next morning for breakfast, though, the mousse was perfectly set. If When I try this again, I will plan to let it chill overnight.

I didn't make many substitutions, using the cherries and cherry preserves, along with the kirsch, but I could see using other dried fruits. I messed up shopping, though, and only got 8 oz. of mascarpone instead of the 12 the recipe called for; I made up the difference in cream cheese with no noticeable negative effect.

I used melted semi-sweet chocolate for the brownie (7 oz.) and a bittersweet bar to cut into chunks. I made big chunks, which surprised people when they bit into the cake. Most people liked the chocolate, but at least one thought it disrupted the texture. I might cut it a little smaller in the future.

All in all, everyone who tasted this raved about it. Considering how relatively easy it is and how special it feels, I'll definitely put this in my "make again" file.

This week's TWD was April of Short + Rose. You can find the step-by-step and recipe on her site.

The Birthday Finale

So, I partied hard both Thursday and Friday. By the time my actual birthday rolled around, I was almost birthdayed out. But I managed to find the strength to go on...

Saturday, Day - Despite being up til nearly four, I rolled groggily out of bed at 9am. I was immediately greeted by a ton of text messages (thank God people have figured me out and no one actually called - I'm a text message kind of girl). There was a really sweet one from my Mom:

"I still remember the morning you were born..." followed shortly by: "Granted, it was a LOOONG time ago..."

Thanks, Mom.

Of all the Galacticans (our name for our gang of gaming geeks), David was the one with the longest drive home, so he'd just gotten a little motel down the street from the house. He and I met for breakfast. I took him to my favorite little Pacifica cafe - Nona's Kitchen - which is in a little shopping mall on the surfer's beach. They serve great homestyle food but with a gourmet twist.

I met David through our mutual friend Davy, at an all-day board game day, and he was one of those people I knew instantly would be my friend. Mostly though, our interactions were around gaming. It was unbelievably nice to spend two hours lingering over our coffee and just talking - about life, things he's done and seen, spirituality, and of course, gaming. It was kind of one of the highlights of my weekend.

After breakfast, I went back to bed. Ha!

Saturday, Evening - The finale: Restaurant Gary Danko. I got dressed up (sort of business casual, actually; GD is remarkably laid back to be so nice), and took the train into the city, then hopped into a cab to go across town to the restaurant.

(My cab driver, Josef, was from Ethiopia and hilarious. He would go from joking with and teasing me to screaming out the window at the next car. I gave him a big tip.)

There was no room at the bar when I arrived, so Marise, her boyfriend Jason and I stood in a corner drinking cocktails while we waited for Shawn. They seated us right at six.

I will do a full Gary Danko review soon (maybe later today). Fortunately, Jason's an awesome photographer so he took tons and tons of pictures. Not a single one has people in it, because none of us could focus on anything but the food.

The food! Our server, Michael, was fantastic, and they even had a special vegetarian menu that I could order from. I got a full five-course meal, although I ended up leaving some on my plate from each course. I had a fig salad with fennel and red cabbage; a crispy egg on a bed of polenta, chanterelles and deliciousness; perfectly-cooked risotto with butternut squash and peas; their cheese course (I got five choices because it was my birthday!); and dessert. For dessert, I had the chocolate souffle with two sauces, plus they brought out a little lemon dessert for my birthday. PLUS, I had two bellinis.

The conversation around the table was fun and warm and my friends (I think I may have mentioned this) are bloody awesome. It took three hours for us all to finish our meal, and then we all waddled home. (I got another great cab driver - this one a cranky old man from Russia.)

All in all, I'm going to call it:

This was the best. Birthday.

Ever.

More Birthdaying

The celebrations started on Thursday, and continued on...

Friday, Day - I took Friday off, which is a treat unto itself. It was mostly quiet: shopping, straightening the house and cooking. I prepped my infamous Grape Jelly Meatballs, some olive cheese bread and brown sugar-macadamia-brandy-glazed brie (and of course, completely forgot pictures of all of them - sorry). I also made this week's Tuesdays with Dorie dessert as my birthday cake - a cherry-fudge brownie torte with mascarpone mousse topping. (I'm currently still in bed, trying hard to convince myself not to go down and cut a piece for breakfast, but that's a story for another day.)

Plus, I sent my mom flowers. Sending your mom flowers on your birthday is good karma.

Friday, Evening - This was what I'd been waiting for. You see, for several months now, a group of us has played the Battlestar Galactica Board Game together. We're kind of obsessed. It's one of those groups where we play the game to have fun, and not necessarily to decimate our opponents, so I love playing with them. However, there are seven of us and till now, we haven't all been able to play at once. The new expansion allows for seven players, though, and we'd waited months for the stars to align so we could all get in the room together. It just so happened to be on the night before my birthday.

So, everyone arrived with lots and lots of booze and lots and lots of food. My friend Risey brought fixings for bruschetta with carmelized onions, port and blue cheese which were out of this world, and my friend David picked up my favorite red velvet cupcakes. (And yes, our gaming group does eat better than most...) There was so much food that we didn't even bother ordering dinner.

Me and David (or "DJ David K"), whom I love even though he's always the Cylon/Bad Guy

Now, some of what happened during the evening won't make sense without some knowledge of the game, so bear with me. First, it's based on the new Battlestar Galactica show, so all the pictures on the cards are of the new actors. Basically, there are four types of characters you can play (pilot, military leader, etc.) and each type contains three different characters - each with their own abilities and drawbacks. At the beginning of the game, you choose who you want to be that game. Everyone usually chooses someone different each time we play.

The gang, arguing some obscure point that is crucial to the humans' survival...

Except me.

I always play Apollo. Always. It's because of his abilities and how I like to play, but the guys insist it's because he's cute. (Which, okay, fine...he is. But, still...) It's become a running joke now, to the point where I'm referred to as Jenna/Apollo - or "Slash" for short.

On a side note: choosing our characters was hilarious. What we do is lay out all the character cards and everyone decides their first choice. You put a token on your first choice; if two people want the same character, we roll for it - high roll gets to play the character. No one usually puts in against me for Apollo because a.) most people don't like playing pilots and b.) I'm Apollo, dammit.

So, I put down my token on Apollo, walked into the kitchen, and came back to find everyone else's token on Apollo, too. Bitches.

"Oh, hell no. Ya'll need to get your tokens off my boy!"

(And yes, of course, they let me play Apollo. It was my birthday, after all.)

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details of the game, but we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. And then the clock struck midnight. Yay! It was my birthday! Everyone immediately starting singing Happy Birthday, which was adorable.

Out came the torte (delicious) and a bottle of champagne, so we stopped for a "birthday break". At this point, I'm thinking the night is pretty much perfect and can't get any better. I'm totally unprepared for another surprise.

They'd been planning it secretly for a while, apparently. First, there was an adorable card filled with inside jokes about Apollo and gaming. I loved it. Inside the card was a gift certificate to a game store, because what else do you get a gamer for her birthday? Since I have a whole list of games I want, this is awesome.

But there was one more gift.

Remember, these guys are all about inside jokes, and they insist I'm all about Apollo. So, I unwrapped a framed picture of the guy who plays Apollo in a scene from the show, wearing nothing but a towel - and barely at that. They'd even added a cheeky "note" from "Apollo" - written to "Slash".

No caption necessary.

It was completely silly and completely perfect.

I can't tell you what a fun evening I had, and what a great start to the year this has been.

Risey, David, Davy, Shawn, Bryce and Sam - thank you. You guys are the very best.

Birthday Update, Part Two

I've been 40 for just over 3 hours, and am so excited I can't sleep. Not because I'm excited about being 40, but because I feel great and loved and everything else you can think of that's good.

I'm too worn out to fiddle with the camera, but I do have some pictures I can post later. Still, I wanted to share what's been going on on my "birthday weekend extravaganza".

Thursday Day - We celebrated my birthday at work on Thursday, since I took Friday off. First, I was totally surprised when one of my friends, C, dropped by and handed me a wrapped package. Turns out, it was a book - an encyclopedia of mythical creatures from all over the world. I was spellbound by it all day. She said she actually saw it and thought of me, so she picked it up - not even knowing my birthday was near.

My friend M baked a cake for me, and we all shared it in the kitchen. It was my favorite - chocolate cake with white icing - and absolutely scrumptious. Plus, I have a soft spot for homemade cakes. When someone makes me a birthday cake - or I make one for someone - I think it feels really special. I felt special, at least.

Thursday Evening - At the end of the day, several of us walked over to Norton's Vault, a cool pub down the street from my office. I think this may be my go-to pub now. It has a great atmosphere - open and free-flowing, yet cozy at the same time. We started drinking Guinness, progressed to Irish whiskey, and then more and more and more people showed up. Altogether, there were almost 20 people who came to wish me "happy birthday", including several who don't normally do happy hour-type things. Everyone was super nice, and kept telling me how great I looked and I didn't look 40, etc. Not sure if they were stretching the truth or not (don't people always have to say that?), but it felt good nonetheless.

(Also, one friend from another department hadn't seen me in a couple of months, and she was so tickled over my weight loss that I got tickled, too.)

I mingled around the table, I drank whiskey, and I shined my light, which I haven't necessarily in a while.

To say I felt great is a mild understatement.

I even made a new friend - a woman invited by one of the guys whom I instantly connected with. We rode the train home together, and she gave me the warmest hug before her stop.

Yes, definitely a good day.

I'm getting sleepy now (finally), so I'll pick up tomorrow with the story of the even MORE awesome day I had on Friday...

Birthday Update

So, I finally made a decision on my birthday plans for this Saturday. In fact, the celebrations begin today:

Thursday - I'm going out for drinks after work at Norton's Vault with a bunch of co-workers. There's also a rumor that there may be cake at work.

Friday - Taking the day off to do some napping and cooking. My "boys" (the guys - and one girl - I game with) are coming over after work. We'll order a feast of pizza and/or chinese, break out the bubbly and the Red Bull, and play Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game all night long. Yes, I am that geeky.

Saturday: I'll go from immature to very mature, by ending the celebrations with a fancy meal at Restaurant Gary Danko, along with three close friends.

Looking forward to it!

TWD: Sweet Potato Biscuits

This week was my first week baking for Tuesdays with Dorie, and this week's recipe was...

Sweet Potatah Biskits

(That's the proper, phonetic Southern spelling, of course. Dorie spells them "right".)

Funnily enough, I recently tested a recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits for a well-known cooking mag, and as yummy as they were, I threatened to never make them again. Between all the steaming and mashing of sweet potatoes, and the sticky, sticky dough, they were a fracking pain in the butt.

Dorie gets around all that by using canned ... yes, canned ... sweet potatoes. Not only did I appreciate the workaround, but my mom uses canned sweet potatoes in her casserole at Thanksgiving, so there was a bit of nostalgia going on, too. And nostalgia in the kitchen is always a good thing, far as I'm concerned.

These came together quickly, partly because of this shortcut, and I got them in the oven without too much trouble. (The dough is still sticky, but that's somewhat to be expected with biskits.) After I cut out my first biscuits and patted it back into a rectangle a second and third time, I did end up with a tad of leftover dough, but I also ended up with the recipe-specified 18 biscuits, so that's good.

As you can see above, these are not tall biscuits and they're not flaky-style ones, either. Mine baked up fairly flat, though they were moist and tender. Some of the other TWD bakers were offended by this, but I thought they were a good country-style biscuit.

The taste is ... okay. Lots of sweet potato taste, and I actually did taste a lot of butter. (Though that could be because I eat a lot less fat now and my tastes have changed.) I added both cinnamon and nutmeg, but couldn't really taste them and thought that overall the biscuits tasted a little flat. I might up the spices if I made these again.

Finally, I froze half of them (Dorie says you can freeze them for up to 2 months), since I couldn't eat them all myself and they don't keep that well. I'll let you know how the frozen ones do once I bake them up...whenever that is.

Overall, a good recipe, especially because it can be made quickly and with pantry ingredients. I loved it as an accompaniment to fall soups. I would definitely make this again.

This week's recipe was chosen by Erin of Prudence Pennywise. You can get the recipe there, along with her own recipe for sweet potato rolls. Otherwise, it's on page 26 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

What I'm Reading: Baking from my Home to Yours

Okay, so I've been wanting to do a regular "What I'm Reading" feature, and this is as good a place to start as any.

And while we're starting stuff, let's start with a confession: I read cookbooks in bed. Yes. Cookbooks. It helps me fall asleep. There's a stack of 5 cookbooks on one side of my bed as we speak.

Anyhoo, I added this book to the stack mostly because I decided to start doing Tuesdays with Dorie. This is essentially a group of bloggers who are baking their way through this very book. They choose a new recipe to make every week, and then you bake it, take photos and post your experience with it on your blog. They've already gone through a lot of the book, but I figured starting late was better than starting never, right?

My first recipe was this past week, the sweet potato biscuits; I'll post those tomorrow. This week's recipe, which I hope to make for my birthday party, is a chocolate cherry brownie torte with a mascarpone mousse top layer. (Umm...hello?? Yum!)

Overall, I'm quite enamored with the book. It's one of those few cookbooks where nearly every recipe is something I'd actually want to eat. She doesn't go for a lot of the fancy pants desserts - there are a lot of chunky cookies, mile-high layer cakes and the like. They don't all have pictures, but the ones that do are usually big and bold and delicious-looking. There's a photo of a chocolate brownie cake with a carmel and salted peanut topping that I can't get out of my mind...

I'm not as impressed with her writing in the introductions to the recipes. She doesn't have the graceful pen of a Nigella Lawson or the honest voice of an Ina Garten. But she does seem to write solid recipes and again, the kinds of recipes a home cook could really make.

I'll have to make a few more of the recipes to tell if they're as foolproof as some of my favorite cookbook authors (like Ina Garten), but so far, I'm a fan of Dorie.