How about some Chocolate Cake!

My sister-in-law's birthday was last month and I volunteered to make her cake. She loves chocolate so I tried making Julia's Le Marquis (Chocolate Spongecake.) It was not the best chocolate cake I ever had so I ended up buying and making a chocoalate cake mix last minute. The ganache from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom is super dark chocolate, and I over overcooked the spongecake so it was too dry and tuff. *sigh* It's probably a good cake when someone makes it right. Oh well, you win some, you loose some. The Betty Crocker Chocolate cake mix turned out moist and soft and decadent with Pillsbury Fudge Frosting on it. A ready mix saved the night!
Pity my Le Marquis was literally a bitter disappointment; although, it does look pretty don't you think?
The chocolate spongecake is levened with egg whites so I imagine if made right this cake would be light and fluffy. I will have to try again!

Junior's Cheesecake

My husband is a New York Style Cheesecake buff. If we go to the cheesecake factory he will only order the plain cheesecake every time. I have made a fair amount of cheesecake being the amateur cook I am, some have been excellent and some have been a bitter disappointment.

In January my husband watched a segment on the food network and then advised me to buy a Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook. After researching it a bit I discovered I would need an 8-9" Spring form pan to make the cheesecake that had been featured and caught my husband's interest. I ordered the pan and cookbook online and they arrived about a week before Valentines Day. Guess what I made my husband for Valentine's Day. The best cheesecake there has ever been! Junior's Cheesecake is smooth and light and rich and beyond delicious. It was by far the best cheesecake I have ever had the pleasure of eating and it needed no topping. There is a slightly lemony sponge cake for a crust instead of graham crackers and the cheesecake is wrapped in foil and steamed in the oven and then cools overnight. I cut the cake and froze half of it, because I knew we'd either eat the whole thing, or we would leave most of it to go to waste and neither scenario would be healthy. We ate half of that cheesecake in 2-3 days and then defrosted the other half (which kept perfectly when I followed the storing directions given in the book.) about two weeks later and finished it off.

Thank you Junior's Cheesecake for sharing your delectable secrets!

Dear Reader, if you ever by any cookbook in your life, buy this book and make this cheesecake yourself, it's worth every penny and all the effort! You will be the new Cheesecake Queen my friend!

Poached Fish and Hollandaise

I finally had the chance to make a hollandaise sauce! Last month I decided to poach some fish and serve it with hollandaise sauce and vegetables for dinner one night. It was my first time poaching fish as well as making the sauce.
I don't like to cook with wine because I don't drink it, and what will I do with it after I've used what I needed to cook with! So I substituted white grape juice for white wine in the poached fish recipe. First I caramelized shallots in butter in a oven proof skillet. After arranging the sole evenly over the onions, I poured on the sparkling white grape juice, let it simmer a while then covered it all with buttered parchment paper and set it in the oven to finish cooking. I have to say I loved the poached fish part but the Dover sole I had chosen for the project was pretty bitter and I think I'd choose a real "sole" next time or an entirely different kind of fish.
The hollandaise sauce was shockingly a cinch to make! I have no idea why I should have been so intimidated by it before. It requires a lot of stirring and I think I would be more stingy with the lemon juice next time I make it. For the purpose of the fish I made the hollandaise into a Sauce Chantilly (made with whipped cream.) and enjoyed every bite except for the bitter after-taste the chosen fish emitted. As a whole I consider the experience a success and thank Julia Child for showing me how easy it is to make Hollandaise Sauce and how delicious poached fish can be. I am looking forward to learning to make an omelet her way and grace it with another batch of hollandaise. Mmm.