The Funky Kitchen

It was my birthday on Wednesday, and it was a great day. I had a deliciously dip themed lunch with some great friends, dinner with my family, took a bubble bath and had a drink or two at my favorite pub with some of my favorite people. All in all, it was a great day.

Also, I got some pretty cool kitchen kit. I got a brie baker from Mister. He certainly knows what I like, and this means no more cheese volcanoes in my future! Birthday brie? Heck yes! Also, a kitchen scale from the veritable Trish, of the dip themed lunch. Be ready for the cake that will be eaten tomorrow (and most likely talked about on Sunday), it’s a pretty  show stopping cake.

Here’s to another year!

Today is Mister’s birthday!

Someone must love him very much (I wonder who?), because he’s getting two epic birthday cakes. One for his official birthday, today, and one for the birthday party on Saturday. You’ve got to be a pretty special person to warrant two epic birthday cakes! Birthday cake number two will follow this weekend.

As an extra special birthday surprise, we found out that he isn’t getting sent away by the military in the beginning of February anymore! What luck, I’m positively gleeful for that news.

Mister’s Woodgrain Birthday Cake

(recipe slightly adapted from Take a Megabite)

• In a bowl, beat together the sugar and eggs until foamy.
• Slowly add the oil, milk and vanilla, mixing until combined.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry mixture slowly to the wet, combining until the batter is free of lumps.
• Pour half of the batter into a large measuring cup (best if it has a pour spout).
• Add the cocoa powder to the remaining batter, mixing until smooth.
• Scrape the chocolate batter into another measuring cup (also good to have a pour spout).
• Grease your cake pan (9 inch round, or other shaped of your choice, yay hearts!).
• Starting with the vanilla batter, pour a small round directly into the middle of the pan. It should be about an inch and a half around, or ~3 Tbsp. Then, pour the same amount of chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. Imagine a bulls-eye, always pour into the middle of the bulls-eye.
• Continue alternating the batters until you run out. As the cake batter is poured, it will force the previous layers outward and upward, creating the woodgrain effect.
• Bake the cake in a 350° oven until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake (~35 minutes).
• Allow to cool and ice.

The cake was very tasty, but I think next time I’ll use a combination of baking powder and baking soda because the texture was a little bit off of my liking. Still, the woodgrain effect was gorgeous and Mister enjoyed his cake and blowing out his candle (we didn’t have any cake candles). I love you Mister!

Mister rates his cake: tasty and cool looking, but a little too crumby.

Now that I’ve finally worked through the lengthy task that was my feed reader, I come bearing recipes of a simple and delicious tortellini soup.

Simple: There aren’t any ingredients in the soup that are very out of the ordinary, I’d have the ingredients for everything but the tortellini in my pantry any day of the week. Also, it comes together without too much prodding or poking. Everyday ingredients doing what they do best make for a fantastic soup.

Delicious: Lots of lovely vegetables in stock from a roasted chicken? Can you ask for more? Yes you can, and that is where the tortellini come into play. You can make your own, make a take a shortcut and make the cheater version, or just by tortellini to put into the pot. I made mine for a birthday girl, because there isn’t much like stuffing pasta for someone to show that you care. The trick, the secret ingredient that makes the soup really sparkle, is just a little bit of red wine vinegar at the end. It adds just a little bit of zing that gets your mouth ready for all of the rounded vegetable, herb and roasted chicken flavors. Tasty!

Tortellini Soup

1 medium onion

3-4 stalks of celery

2-3 carrots

1 Tbsp butter

1-14 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp basil and oregano

fresh cracked black pepper

3 Cups chicken stock

2 1/2 Cups water (or more to taste)

1 1/2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Tortellini (see recipe here)

• Dice the onion, carrots and celery. Sweat the diced vegetables in a soup pot with the butter until soft.
• Open the tin of tomatoes, and drain, reserving the liquid.
• Turn the heat on the pot to medium high, add the tomatoes (not the liquid), and saute until the vegetables start to brown a little bit. (Browning=flavor and flavor=good)
• Add to the pot the basil, oregano and pepper. Stir and wait for their fragrance to waft into the air.
• Add the reserved tomato liquid, chicken stock and water. Stir occasionally until the soup reaches a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to simmer 10-15 minutes to give the flavors time to get friendly with each other.
• Stir in the secret ingredient, the red wine vinegar.
• Add the tortellini and allow the soup to continue to bubble until the pasta is cooked through (this will depend if you are using fresh pasta or dried: for cheater tortellini ~6 minutes).
• Serve right away, overcooked tortellini will get mushy.

This soup was absolutely perfect for the birthday celebration lunch I brought it to. It’s so warm and summery, it definitely washes away my foot of snow blues.