Coconutty Celebration

Mama Lee's birthday was last month and we went up to DC to celebrate her hot cougarness. I got hit by this wallop of a cold...definitely the worst one this year but not as bad as last year's flu. I also shared the love with my sister. What makes that even better is that the poor thing is 8 months preggers. I'm the world's best sister....ever.

Anyhoo...I had seen this cake on Bobby Flay's "Throwdown" show last summer and it screamed "MAMA LEE". My mom loves, loves, LOVES coconut cake!!! I totally wanted to make it for her and was really looking forward to making it...until I got hit with this cold. It was bad news bears after that.

Still...my mom only has one birthday a year...well, actually, girlfriend has TWO birthdays a year...thanks to my granddaddy not reporting her birth until the day after (I'm not sure how birth recordings work in Honduras, but my mom's legal birthday is the day AFTER her actual birth date). So, I was praying that even though I couldn't make most of it down here before heading up to DC, I still could work on it when I got there.

I was still sick...really sick. Besides the boo hoo hoo for me, I was more concern about baking a petri dish full of my germy goodness for the family and infecting them all. Luckily, I was washing and sanitizing myself all throughout and I think Kim got sick after one of the kids kissed me on the lips and then kissed her on the lips. SORRY SISTEE!!!

Anyhoo...the cake turned out fabulous despite me being out of my element. The custard could've been better...but that was my fault...hooray for tiny baby clumps! Not! I switched it up and did two layers of the coconut cream and one layer of the custard. I also did a lightly sweetened whipped cream for the frosting instead of the buttercream. My mom prefers whipped cream frostings and I knew the cake was already going to be too sweet with the buttercream.

The final product...delicate, not cavity-inducing, coconutty goodness. I'm relieved to find out my cake-making skills are getting better. Baking is so much harder than cooking...but the end results are worth it!

Click here for Bobby Flay's Toasted Coconut Cake with Coconut Filling and Coconut Buttercream.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

From The Lee-Espiritu Fam

Beta-Carotene Goodness

Did you know that carrots are one of those veggies that have more nutritional bang for their buck when cooked? So, with that logic, here's something that is not only delicious, but NUTRITIOUS.

Yeah, it's a stretch, but a gooooooood one! ;o)

The Hubs loves himself some carrot cake. I first tried this bad boy when Sean's first CO (commanding officer) on his first sub was leaving and they were welcoming the new CO...this ceremony is called a Exchange of Command. Anyhoo...one of the other officer's wives had made this fabulous carrot cake. FAB-U-LOUS. So fabulous that I made my fiance hunt this man down to get his wife to fork over her recipe. I'm so glad I did because I haven't used any other carrot cake recipe since then. I've tweaked it to my liking.

I made the one above for the wardroom (basically the group of officers on the submarine) Super Bowl party this year. Unfortunately, I don't know how memorable that cake was since basically everyone at the party came down with a stomach virus (incl. our fam) that incapacitated almost the entire wardroom. Yeah, needless to say, there were barely any officers around that week on the sub...save for the guys who weren't at the party and my hubby who managed to barely escape the plague that got us. I. Hate. Nausea. And. Vomiting. I will birth a child, tear a ligament, break a bone any day...but Lord do not make me queasy!!

Anyhoo...with that said. I love, love, love spices. So, I make this cake extra spicelicious. The cream cheese frosting tempers it quite nicely. But, if you don't like too much spice, just cut back on the measurements I gave on the spices...which are approximations since I go against the baking grain and just dump the spices until I think it's good enough. Luckily, since they're spices, my lack-of-measurement for them is technically not wrong since it won't affect any chemical reactions in it.

This bad boy is just some yummy, moist, spicey, carroty goodness.

Carrot Cake
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 t. baking soda
1.5 T. cinnamon (I won't lie, I probably use about 2 T. or more)
1 - 1.5 t. ginger
1/2 - 3/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. ground cloves
1 t. salt
1 cup oil
4 eggs
4 cups shredded carrots (the original recipe calls for 3, I like to use 4 or more)
1 t. vanilla (again, I am guilty of using 1.5-2 t. vanilla)
8 oz. crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup walnuts (optional)
1 cup raisins, rehydrated in rum (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Add the oil & eegs, one at a time. Beat until thoroughly mixed. Add carrots, pineapple, & vanilla. (This is where you would also add the nuts and/or raisins, if using.) Mix well. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until done.

Done will be when it's no longer shiny on top, center is firm, sides are beginning to pull away, and there is just a touch of brown spots.

Let cake cool completely in pan before removing.

Frost with cream cheese frosting. Add garnishes, if desired. I added toasted coconut and toasted chopped walnuts in the photo above (since there were no walnuts in the cake).

Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 cup butter, softened (I use salted since I'm not big on way too sugary frosting/icing)
1 lb. (or less) Confectioner's sugar
1 lb. cream cheese, softened
1 T. vanilla (I. Love. Vanilla.)

Cream butter & cream cheese together. Add vanilla. Mix. Mix in sugar...sloooooowly, unless you like a snowy kitchen. I find working in it in 3-4 portions helps!

**Some healthy substitutions would be: whole wheat flour for the flour, 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 oil instead of 1 cup oil (which I used Smart Balance oil), & a lower fat cream cheese in the frosting.

Enjoy!

Welcome Home & Happy Birthday!

Yes, the hubby finally came home...early & on his birthday no less!!! We rounded up a pretty darn fine meal...if I must say so myself! ;o) The meal made up for, I hope, the lack of cleaning I intended to do for his birthday gift. Hahahaha. One day we will have a clean house. Usually it's when we get stationed somewhere else. HAHAHAHAHA.

Anyhoo...here's the menu we had planned for LT Muscles:

Dinner
Gung-gung's Cabbage Salad
Garlicky Steamed Cauliflower
Churrasco
Brown/White rice

Dessert
Special Dark Chocolate Cake w/Peppermint Buttercream Frosting

Now, who the heck is Gung-gung? Well, he is my 98-year old maternal grandfather who, up until his debilitating stroke about 12 years ago, was an amazing cook! He studied the chefs in Hong Kong and cooking really was his passion. Not only could he cook, but the man could bake too!! Goodness!! Anyway, as this blog continues, I'll probably continue to post recipes from my grandfather that were passed on to my mom who is now teaching us. This way, my kids (and cousins/family) can have something of my grandfathers to always hold on to. Anyway, he is an amazing, amazing man who, long story short, was an orphan when he was still a single-digit age, immigrated to Mexico, then to Honduras, married my amazing grandmother (Lord, Lord, Lord is this woman amazing), raised nine children, owned & ran a store in Honduras, immigrated w/the whole fam to Miami, and just is plain awesome. Now...take an orphan in China (at 6, I believe and raised by his older sisters until his teens) who moves to Mexico & Honduras...has to learn another language, starts business & family, takes care of a slew of extended family back in China, moves to the US, learns another language, and takes care of everyone still. My grandmother...well, she's definitely another paragraph and I will save that for her 5-Spice Garlic Pork...mmmmmmmmmm. My paternal grandparents are equally as amazing too!! But, since this is a food blog, I digress.

My grandfather's cabbage salad is simple: thinly shredded cabbage, thinly sliced tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, salt, & lime. Simply. Here are the steps though...;o)

After slicing up the cabbage, toss it with salt (a good amount) in a colander & let it sit for a good 15-30 minutes. Then rinsed that bad boy. Toss it in with lime juice, olive oil, & good amount of oregano. Toss in the tomatoes. My mom used to top it with chopped fried bacon...and that was GOOD! I haven't made it like that in years though. But, just FYI.

For the churrasco I used flank steak. Traditionally, skirt steak is used. Flank is one of the leanest cuts of meat with barely any fat, so we cook/grill a lot with it. I say "we" but mean me. Hahaha. Anyhoo, I marinated the flank in my cousin Luis' chimichurri recipe. I let that bad boy marinate for a good 6 hours in the fridge. I typically like to marinate my meat for a looooong time.

Here's Luis' recipe w/my tweaks in red:

Luis' Chimichurri

1 cup stemmed parsley (I use more)

1 cup stemmed cilantro (I used the whole shabang since there's tons o' flavor in the stem too...I also use more than 1 cup)

6 cloves of garlic, chopped (only if you're weak do you use 6 cloves...I use MORE...mu-hahahaha)

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/3 cup white vinegar (Luis uses more)

1 1/3 cup water (you can completely omit this or use less for a thicker consistency)

1.5 tsp. salt (Luis also uses more on this one)

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Combine parsley, cilantro, & garlic in a food processor; pulse to chop. Add salt and both peppers & pulse to combine. With processor running, add oil in a thin stream. Finally, add vinegar & water.

What I've started doing lately...even though it is completely anti-green is marinating my meat in Ziploc bags. I use less marinade and it completely surrounds my meat with goodness. This way, with the chimichurri, I have leftover sauce to drizzle on top of the meat. YUM! The photo below is Sean's birthday meal. The pic is deceiving since 1/2 of the plate were veggies and the rice was flattened out to look like there was more.

Now, the cake. When I first started becoming addicted to, errrr, reading The Repressed Pastry Chef's blog, I was reading about her mint chocolate cupcakes. I mean, really, after being greeted with that photo, how could you not be sucked in??? Plus, I *heart* mint chocolate. So, I used my usual chocolate cake recipe (I love you, Ina Garten!) and my usual buttercream recipe (you're my hero, Em!). Add less vanilla & WAY more peppermint to the buttercream...along with blue & green food coloring, and I was GOOD to go. Sean normally doesn't eat frosting but devoured the whole slice of cake with a huge icy glass of milk. This was RIGHT AFTER two plates of the above meal (of course his had way more meat & rice). Yup. It was that good. My kids helped decorate it. You'll be quick to notice my 3YO son's decorating skills in the center of the cake. ;o)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAR!!!

Cupcakes & Dumplings

Mom was down for less than two weeks and just in time to save my sanity! It was a great visit and we're missing her right now! Her visit also happened to coincide with her father's 98th birthday! So, we packed up and drove down to Miami to celebrate my grandfather's Almost Centennial birthday! Knowing I had to make my grandparents' favorite pasta (Linguine w/Clam Sauce...well, favorite pasta that I make them) and some kind of celebratory dessert for his birthday, I prepped, planned, & packed for our trip.

I decided to make lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream...lemon is probably his favorite flavor (dessert, at least). So, I used two recipes from my favorite baking blog, The Repressed Pastry Chef, for cake (love this recipe since it's light, fluffy, and not cloyingly sweet) and buttercream. Needless to say, it was a hit and I had all three great-grandchildren do the decorating...ummmm, with the sprinkles that is! I wasn't about to trust two 4YOs (both almost 5) & a 3YO with frosting (I can say this since 2 out of the 3 great-grans belong to me). I wanted to ensure that we HAD frosting for the cupcakes. ;o)

Aura, the eldest great-grandchild by 5 days!

Kaia, the middle great-grandchild

Jaron, the baby & only great-grandson...for now

We also made one of Kaia's all-time favorite meals...pan-fried dumplings.

This is the pork & shrimp (and roughly half or more veggie) version. One day, I'll have to post the recipe. I make a chicken version too. Sean & Kaia like to have dumpling eating contest. Even though Sean obviously outweighs Kai-Bear, I think ounce for ounce, Kaia is the CLEAR winner. Kaia can eat 9-10 of these bad boys...which is sometimes more than me!

Healthy to Not-So-Healthy

This weekend started w/healthy foods to progressively "that-can't-even-pass-as-good-for-you" food. I started off the weekend making an Oatmeal Brulee. I found the recipe on the blog Kath eats Real Food. I really like her blog (despite her being a Duke fan...GO TERPS) since she cooks really healthy. She's actually studying to be a dietitian. Everyone knows I try to cook healthy...relatively low-fat, full of good fats, make healthy substitutions, high in fiber, high in vegs, and cooking to ensure most of the nutrients remain in place. So, yeah, I like her blog for inspiration. I made the oatmeal brulee and loved it. Since I usually don't follow recipes except when I have to bake something (and I still usually don't follow the recipe to a T), I jazzed mine up with more bananas, more cinnamon, ground flax, & raisins.

I also still have my oil (extra virgin olive oil & some Omega-3 blend) for deep-frying out. So, I wanted to make homemade french fries. Now, fries are a bit of an addiction for me. I am particular about my fries. They cannot be too dark, must be golden, have to be crisp on the outside and completely cooked on the inside, and has to be burn-my-mouth hot!!! I love steak fries, wedges, waffle fries, shoestrings...etc. As long as it's not hard, completely mushy, completely crispy...I don't care what shape they are. Again, they also cannot be brown....golden, people...is that so hard to understand? And HOT, dammit!!! Enough with that. A while ago, I had seen Paula Deen make some onion fries. Holy cow, that instantly sent me back in time to when our neighbor Delicia started throwing in onions when she made french fries. We went home and replicated it too. Granted, Delicia was about 13 and I was 9 at the time, so we'd throw the onions in the beginning w/our frozen fries and even though the fries came out all yummy & everything...the onions, did not. So, reading through this recipe made my mouth salivate and I finally remembered to buy some red potatoes to try this bad boy out. I'm so glad I did! The kids and I loved it. Kaia loved the onions especially...all nice and sweet & salty. Both Kaia & I love dipping our fries in vinegar. I'm not much of a ketchup person, but I do loves me some ketchup w/lots of Tabasco). Kaia loves ketchup too...a lot of it. We use the organic version since it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup.

So, we've gone from Oatmeal Brulee to French Fries to Cookies n' Cream Cake. Yup. Cookies n' Cream. Now, mind you, I apparently didn't have enough powdered sugar on hand to make a full batch of that fabulous buttercream I blogged about earlier. But I did, however, have enough to make a half batch...only realizing this a little bit later when the neurons started firing between the synapses. My synapses were probably in carb heaven and still snoozing. Anyhoo, I made enouch but when my cake was done, I realized it was enough for a batch of cupcakes but NOT enough for a two-layer cake. Thus, the shots of I have are good enough to not embarrass me too much. ;o) For the cake, I used Ina's recipe again. I think having all of Ina Garten's cookbooks allow me to call her Ina or I-nizza or I.G. or...ok, I really need other adults around. Anyhoo...so, Ina's recipe (using Hershey's Special Dark cocoa), vanilla buttercream, and crushed Newman's Own organic chocolate sandwich cookies. I think I actually would've use Oreos for this bad boy next time. I may think about finely crushing the cookies and mixing them into the buttercream for the middle layer instead of just placing it on top of the frosting in the middle layer.

I can say one thing healthy about this cake...I used dark chocolate which is has good nice antioxidants in it...as does the coffee in the recipe too. Also, this is one of the FEW Barefoot Contessa recipes that doesn't use butter for the cake and I used my Omerga-3 blend oil. Am I far reaching on this one since the bad outweighs the good? Yeah, I think so too.

My cookie crushing, cake decorating helpers.