Sheltered Girl Meets World

Made: Anxiety-Filled Beet Gravlax

Please enjoy. I didn't have a panic attack over this or anything.

Sharing food and cooking for friends is one of my favourite things to do.  Sometimes the pressure of perfecting a recipe can get under my skin and turn the fun of sharing into unneeded stress.  The stress turns into anxiety and then pasta dough flies through the air, bland cupcakes are crushed one fistful at a time and beet gravlax gets plated and replated with cries of reassurance from the boyfriend. 

Despite my cries that the world is ending, everything turns out okay.

The pasta is remade, sweet butter cream is piped onto the cupcakes and the beet gravlax is moved from a dull plastic tray to a colourful bowl.  Before I can start making excuses for the salmon it's half eaten and instead have to make excuses to the boyfriend for my world ending cries in the kitchen.

Made: Juicy Lucy or Stuffed Burger

Look at that Juicy Lucy!

A Juicy Lucy/Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger that has the cheese stuffed inside the meat patty.  When cooked the cheese turns into molten cheese lava and bursts out scalding your face/mouth if you don't let it cool before you bite in.  When you do let it cool and the cheese soaks deep into the beef, it's a wonderful combination that makes you wonder why you ever put cheese on top of a patty.

Instead of ground chuck I used beef short ribs; separated the meat from bone and hand ground the meat using my medieval looking grinder, a present from the boyfriend (some girls get jewelry, some get meat grinders).  If you don't have your own meat grinder you can ask your butcher (very nicely) if they can grind the short ribs for you or you can use regular ground hamburger to construct your Juicy Lucy's.

Made: Stale Beer Chocolate Cake

Decadent chocolate cake made with stale Dark Horse Stout.

I really, really love beer but my to-drink collection has gotten out of control.  Between visiting breweries, drooling at the selection available at a Delaware liquor store and Beau's seemingly endless amount of beer releases I have amassed quite the collection.  While the bottles will stay fresh for a while and some may get better with time, the growlers have been forgotten in the fridge and some have started to go stale.

Bottles, growlers, kegs - I have it all!

Not wanting to waste precious beer, especially good beer like Dark Horse Stout by Broadhead Brewery, I made a chocolate beer cake.  The recipe is from Toronto's Beer Bistro and creates an intensely rich, moist cake with hints of the malt and bitterness of the stout.  I still have a half growler of stale beer though; I may have to make a beery beef stew with it...

Recipe for the best cake I've ever made after the jump.

Made: Deep Fried Cadbury Creme Eggs

Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs - this bowl will be empty way before Easter!

Easter candy is the best holiday candy.  What other holiday can you find giant chocolate bunnies, candy coated chocolate eggs and fluorescent marshmallows in the shape of chicks?  And of course, let's not forget about the 'creme' of the crop - the Cadbury Creme Egg.  The super sweet white and yellow fondant encased in milk chocolate is one of my favourite treats and although I typically refrain from buying from the store chocolate shelf, I can't resist the temptation around Easter and eat a few lot.