Flourless Chocolate Cake

This season hasn't been good to me. I've been sick twice already and it's always when things need to get done. For Valentines Day, Amado wanted to stay in and just have dinner at home. He really liked the eggplant parmesan that I made so he asked me to make that again. But for dessert, it had to be something chocolate. Flourless Chocolate Cake, thanks to Martha Stewart.

Ingredients

6 eggs, separate the yolks and whites

1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter and some to coat the pan

1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Recipe will fit a 9 inch springform pan nicely. Butter the pan generously and set aside.

Combine butter and chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and melt it in 30 second increments. Stirring in between, took about 3 times. Stir throughly and let it cool for a bit before whisking in the egg yolks. Add one egg yolk at a time.

Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then gently fold the remaining egg whites.

Pour the batter in the pan and spread it gently with a spatula. Don't tap the pan, it'll flatten the batter to much. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Let it sit and cool on a wire rack. The cake will shrink and pull away from the sides of the pan. The longer you let is sit (room temperature), the thicker and more dense it will get. When you're ready to serve it, dust it with confectioners' sugar.

Thanks for the flowers! Amado wanted me to use a certain caption but I think I'll keep that one on the low.

Juku and Kami's Birthday

When we wake up in the morning, Juku and Kami can be found curled up next to us. One would be on our pillow pressed against our faces and the other is somewhere at the foot of the bed under the covers. It's very uncomfortable but we've gotten used to it. I would try to annoy and smother one of them and whisper, "You're not a baby anymore, stop acting like a baby!" But who am I kidding. They'll aways be our babies even though they're both a year older this week.

Juku turned 6 last Sunday and Kami turns 5 this Friday. We've had a busy week so we wanted to have a small celebration for them celebrated yesterday.

We usually buy them a few pre-made birthday treats from a local pet store but I wanted to make them something this year. Looked online for recipe and found a Banana Peanut Butter dog cake.

I know it doesn't look appetizing but the girls really liked it. Kami started licking the cake before we had a chance to blow out the candles. Juku finished her slice in a couple of bites. 

After that it was time to open their presents. We took them to the pet store a couple of days ago and let them pick out whatever toy they liked. They obviously don't remember that as they were jolted with joy upon opening their gifts as if seeing the toys for the very first time.

Kami and Juku weren't the only ones who had treats. I also made something for Amado and I. Chocolate covered short bread cookies. The recipe needs some tweaking but Amado was happy with it.

Eggplant Parmesan

I started way too early preparing tonight's dinner. Since I had more than a few minutes to spare, I decided to document the steps which involved a lot of hand washing before picking up my camera.

Recipe calls for:

2 large eggplants, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
1 bottle marinara sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 cup grated parmesan (I prefer wedges, freshly grated at home)
1 cup fontina cheese or mozzarella
2 eggs
salt and pepper

Peel and slice the eggplants.

Combine 1 cup of breadcrumbs, 3/4 cups of the grated parmesan, salt and pepper. In a separate bowl, combine the marinara sauce and tomato sauce.

Beat the 2 eggs and add a couple teaspoons of water. Dip the eggplant slices in the egg mixture. Let the excess drip off and then coat with the breadcrumbs mixture. Bake the slices on a lined pan for 20 minutes each side.

Start with spreading the marinara sauce at the bottom of the pan. Layer the eggplant slices followed with a layer of marinara sauce then some sprinkle the parmesan and fontina/mozzarella cheese. 

Repeat until done.

Bake for another 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. Then dig in.

Abbot Kinney

I love love love love love gift cards! Amado and I got an AMC gift card from his Aunt for Christmas and didn't wait long to use it. We caught an early showing of "This is 40" in Marina del Rey. Finally found a dine-in theater thats closer to us. The only other option is Gold Class Cinema in Pasadena which is too far and costs at least $25 for a seat. AMC's dine-in theater is $7.50 for a matinee (Amado and I love to catch early showings) and $17 for peak hours. Not really that bad considering you can eat and have cocktails while watching a movie. I'm talking about alcohol here people! Just press the light on your armrest and the server crawls towards you to take your order. They literally crawl! I didn't take photos with my regular camera but Amado and his trusty Instagram account has a few snapshots. (1 2 3 4)

After the movie, we decided to stop by Abbot Kinney to do some walking. Ended up stopping by Jin Pattiserie for some coffee and sweets.

Amado putting his geisha skills to use in pouring tea.

Green Tea Tiramisu. That's all I need to say about this photo.

A cute toy camera from TGS, one of our favorite stores.

Inside the TOMS store/coffee house. I love dog friendly spaces.

I want one of those cake stands!

As you can see, someone walked away with new loot. He practically twisted my arm to take a photo of him wearing his new coat. But I gotta admit, it looks great on him. 

Happy Holidays!

Trying to continue what I did last year, somewhat of a wrap up for 2012 via Instagram. Again, copped this idea from JStar.

Happy Holidays!

Zivalic Disneyland Day

Since Ryan and Holly have Disneyland season passes and they've gone almost every other day of the week, she thought we might as well take their holiday photos at the "Happiest Place on Earth".

FYI, all four of us squeezed in one tea cup. I could have sworn they were much bigger and had more leg room.