Sunday Dinner: Mushrooms with Cream and Apple Cinnamon Cake

First off: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I have two dad's. My biological father and my step-father. No one could ever take the place of my daddy, but my step-dad is absolutely wonderful.

So, you all probably thought that I forgot about last week's dinner. Well that's just not so! Since I knew I was going to be in Luxembourg most of this week I left it off until this week since I knew I wouldn't have time to cook this week.
I got this new (well technically used) cooking book at the New Age store in town that is closing down. It's a Celtic Folklore cooking book. Think what you will, but I think our ancestors knew a thing or two about using a the ingredients at hand. This past week I baked apple cinnamon cake and cooked mushrooms with cream.

The apple cinnamon cake was great. Though our oven is a little sketchy so the middle wouldn't cook so the edges got slightly burnt. But I made it twice anyway and in both cases I took the cake to friends. In both cases I only got one slice. I guess that means it must have been good! *smiles* And it is soooo simple to make. I've already got the recipe memorized.

Top view of the whole cake; sliced apples are in a spiral on top

A bad picture of a slice of the cake

And the Mushrooms in Cream? Well...I'm not the biggest fan. First off, I like mushrooms OK, but they're not my favourite thing ever. I think I would have liked this dish better if the mushrooms were in a cream sauce instead. As the recipe stands now it really is just cooked mushrooms in warm cream. It was great on mashed potatoes, but I can see it getting boring. I might try and switch up the recipe a little and make a sauce to bake the mushrooms in.

Mushrooms in the cream

Flight Failure

So, I thought that it would be a good idea to get some travelling in this summer. Nothing too big, but since I wasn't going to be getting a new puppy to raise for Guide Dogs for the Blind in the UK I thought I might as well see some of the world. I am in the middle of my first trip of the summer. This trip is to visit my flatmate Lisa in her natural habitat of Luxembourg.

Now, I wouldn't be too surprised if none of you out there have heard of Luxembourg. It's not too big. I can't give you the exact details of it right now seeing as I'm on a time limit, but I've seen pictures and it's pretty. So, why not go and see my friend?

I was pretty excited about the whole thing until I landed here in Amsterdam. The flight itself wasn't the best and we landed about 40 minutes before my next flight was to leave. Not only that, but the way the airport is set up I had to take a 10 minute transfer shuttle to the terminal. When I got to said terminal I looked for my flight on the board to check the departure gate (anyone remember the good old days where they printed the gate on your ticket?). Couldn't find my flight. It just wasn't there. So I tried to find another board. This all took about another 5 minutes but as soon as I found the other board I found my flight immediately and noticed it was in another terminal. Ran to the passport check. Ran to the security. Security ran my bag THREE seperate time. All of this taking 20 minutes. Those of you who are good at math will realise that this all took 35 out of my 40 minutes. And, when I got through security, I ran to my gate. But not fast enough.

Where does that leave me? 4 and a half hours in Amsterdam. URGH!

Sunday Dinner: Bitter Chocolate and Satled Caramel Torte

I meant to post this up yesterday, but Marlene came over in the afternoon for a chat and then we went to see Prometheus in the evening. I do suggest seeing it if you haven't already and are a fan of the original Alien movies. There wasn't much in the way of character development or much dialogue at all, but it's fun and entertaining and good for a night out. The only thing that ruined last night was the stomach pain that started about half way through the movie. Ah well, I'm feeling better now and I think that's really what matters.

A slice of the Bitter Chocolate and Caramel Torte with pouring cream drizzled on it.

This week (well really two weeks ago) I made a Bitter Chocolate and Salted Caramel Torte. I know that this is suppose to help me be a better cook, not a better baker but when I saw this recipe I couldn't say no.

I don't remember too much of the experience anymore. What I do remember is that the caramel was such a pain. I think I made it fine, but it sunk to the bottom of the spring form pan so it stuck and made it difficult to get the pieces unstuck from the bottom. It also became liquidy in the oven and stayed that way when it got out of the oven. This means that some of the caramel leaked onto the counter where it was resting and made a big mess. I set it in the refrigerator on a plate after that the solidify the caramel. And our oven isn't the best. It's super old and sometimes it doesn't cook things the way they out to. So, actually making sure it was fully cooked was also a little annoying.

Despite the few obstacles, it came out great and tasted wonderfully! I got rid of about three quarters of it at a roleplaying game, but I had a whole quarter all to myself after that. The picture above isn't the best I could have taken, but it was the best out of the ones I took. I really should start taking pictures of the food on my purple plates instead of the white ones.