It's Girl Scout Cookie Time

Two weeks ago marked the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting. I was a scout and my daughter is a scout (I happen to be her troop leader...), and I wanted to do something fun for the girls and decided we would have an anniversary party at our next meeting. What is a party without a cake? In honor of scouting I decided to make a cake using some of their most iconic flavors-Thin Mint Cookies. This cake is super easy to make and I hope you will give it a whirl some time your self.

Thin Mint Cake

Cake:
1 box of chocolate cake mix (or your favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe)
*Follow box instructions to prepare cake, bake in 2 8 or 9 inch rounds, cool and remove from pans. May bake up to 2 days ahead just wrap tightly to keep moist and fresh.

Filling:
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Tablespoon Mint Extract
3 Tablespoons Confectioners Sugar
8 Crushed Thin Mint Cookies (optional)

Chill your bowl and beaters in the fridge for 1 hour. Then with mixer on medium high whip the heavy cream until it stiffens. Add mint and confectioner's sugar, mix to incorporate. Taste to ensure minty/sweetness.

Chocolate Ganache
1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
9 Oz Chocolate Chips
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Heat Cream over low heat in saucepan stirring to keep from burning. Once cream is hot (not simmering or boiling!) remove from heat stir in chips and vanilla. Stir til smooth. Chill for 5-10 minutes.

Assembly:

Put one cake layer on cake platter, spoon mint cream over the top in a thick layer. Scatter crushed mint cookies on top of cream layer. Top with second cake layer and starting in the middle of the cake pour ganache over cake. The Ganache will run over cake and down the sides.

Chill cake in fridge to set up ganache and keep cream intact.

Enjoy!

Variations-mix the cookies into the whipped cream, leave out the cookies all together, use a different cookie that is choco-mint, color the cream green....

Happy Anniversary Girl Scouts and please don't forget to support scouting in any way that you can-volunteer your time as a troop leader, buy a box of cookies, agree to speak/teach a class to a troop on something!

Eating With Your Eyes

Since it is super convenient I often just check online at one of my fave websites for a recipe these days. I can do it right in the grocery store if I am shopping for ingredients and that is a huge help as I am always trying to do 9 things and never just focus on one, with the result being not quite on the ball. However, in the not to distant past aside from foodie mags the only thing I had to rely on was cookbooks.

I actually have quite a number of cookbooks-at least 25 or 30. The funny part is I have pared this down a bit-passing along the ones that I never really meshed with. I thought since I had burgers and pasta salad for dinner tonight and you probably all know how to make that it would be fun to share some of my personal fave cookbooks.

I can read cookbooks like a novel. I love to look at the photos (especially in baking books), and check out menu suggestions. I even read the sections about what kind of cookware to buy or the explanation of couscous-none of which I really need. But I so enjoy picking up a tidbit here and there and folding down a page that I MUST go back to so I can make the dish.

All time hands down, The Moosewood Restaurant and The Enchanted Brocoli Forest (both by Mollie Katzen) are the top of the list for me. Even though I don't eat vegetarian anymore and only did so for a bit these cookbooks are all about the process of home-made delicious foods. These means rising dough, chopping veggies, making your own crusts. The indulgent slow and often meditative process that sadly we don't have time for all that often any more. (At least I don't...) In these books you will find the basic quiche formula to take you through to enternity-no matter what flavors you want if you follow the basic principles within you will be able to make the perfect quiche. Also the most delicious honey wheat bread-complete with hand drawn instructions to walk you through bread baking.

The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer is my go to for everyday cooking principles and practices. I know we all have a fave for this-it could be Better Homes and Gardens or Julia Childs or any other number of books but this one is the book for me. Whether I need to know how to set out the silver for a lovely upscale Thanksgiving or how to make a french toast that has the perfect balance of cinnamon and vanilla I know I will find it there.

The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Nuovo Vesuvio. I know you might think this is a joke, but the recipes are actually fairly spot on for traditional Italian. I have tweaked the Sunday Gravy recipe slightly to make it my own, but it is a fairly similar recipe as my mother-in-laws. It is a great Italian cookery reference-has all the basics and a few speciality items but doesn't go to deep.

The Mesa Grill Cookbook by Bobby Flay is excellent. After eating at Mesa Grill I had to have it and I am glad I do. I can recreate his amazing steaksauce or double baked horseradish potatoes at home-saving a trip to Manhattan and about $130 in the process. The book is an upscale take on southwestern food.

Lastly, the orange Betty Crocker cookbook published most likely in the 60's. I have my grandmothers copy and some day if she wants it my daughter will have it. I used to sit at my grandmother's house reading it and looking at the pictures like it was a fairy tale. Pictures of foods I would never eat at this point in my life like bread with pimento spread cut into triangles, jello molds filled with ham and fruit and other strange concotions. The pics are super kitchsy but there are some great basic recipes in this book for breads and the best cinnamon bun recipe I have ever had along with kitchen classics like chicken kiev. I almost never open this book anymore but it is really my first cookbook and holds a special place in my heart.

Would love to hear what your faves are...Sometimes eating with your eyes is almost as much fun!

Food Coma

Food Coma, that is probably the best way I can describe my general disregard for all that is delicious and aromatic since July of last year! (Ouch, I stink!)

It is NOT for lack of anything good to say...I have had plenty to say, and eat but barely enough time to scarf it all down let alone write about it.

I mean, how could I have not told you about my first experience at Commander's Palace the quintessential New Orleans dining spot-the service, the atmosphere and oh the pork belly. I was there with co-workers and laughed til I cried and that was fine and dandy in this fancy joint-cuz in New Orleans EVERYTHING goes. And that pork belly-a glorious chunk of the best bacon I have ever eaten is really what it was...

And to not tell you about some of the very best Mexican food this side of the Rio Grande at Besito in Huntington Village on Long Island is clearly a lack of good judgement on my part. I love Mexican food. The cheapo stuff at trucks and fast food joints, the chains and their never ending chips and salsa, but the really good stuff is harder to find. I have had it though at Mexican Radio and The Border Grille and Besito is the best. Table side guac making, amazing margaritas like prickly pear and impeccable service.

And I really can't believe I didn't share my excitement for the afternoon tea at The Plaza hotel in New York with you! I used my 6 year old daughter as my excuse to go, as she is a big fan of the character Eloise who lives at The Plaza. So a trip to NYC was in order for "girls day" complete with a trip to The American Girl store and afternoon tea at The Plaza. A good friend who does not have daughters came along for the girly fun. My daughter had "The Eloise" which featured pink lemonade, pb & j finger sandwiches and other delectables. I went for something decidedly more savory and grown up and got the "New Yorker" with roast beef on pretzel bread, scones with Devon shire cream and other savories. The service was great, they brought Zoe out a little cake for her birthday and we have a photo of us in front of Eloise's portrait along with this amazing memory.

I also haven't shared my latest obsession of a soy-cola braised pork roast. Maybe I shall make that the subject of an upcoming post? I am also Las Vegas bound in a few weeks and have already been reserving tables all over town! So I have a lot to report on. Either way food coma or not I shall not abandon this blog again!

Happy Eating!