Happy Valentines to Me!

This is what Scott created for me for Valentine's this year! I love it!

Valentine's Chocolate Mud Cake

For Valentines dinner I'm going to make this yummy Chocolate Mud Cake. I made it for Scott's birthday, and I can't wait to eat it again tonight.



Here's the recipe if anyone is interested. It is adapted from a recipe posted a few years ago on NieNie diaries blog.  I like this version better, the frosting is less sweet. I may just fill mine with chocolate whipped cream if I don't get out to get the marscapone cheese. Both are yummy!

Mud cake


This recipe uses a simple mixing method which make a lush, dense brownie-like cake.

8 oz unsweetened chocolate (or 5 oz cocoa powder plus 4 oz unsalted butter)
6 oz olive oil (3/4 cup)
14 oz sugar (2 cups)
4 oz powdered sugar (1 cup)
4 eggs
5 oz flour (1 cup)
3.4 oz cocoa powder (1/2 cup)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder (above 5000 feet altitude, only use 1 tsp)
½ tsp baking soda
8 oz buttermilk (1 cup) - (or 1 cup warm milk mixed with 1 TB lemon juice, let stand 10 mins to curdle before using)

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and dust with cocoa powder two 9in cake pans.
2. In double boiler, melt the chocolate and olive oil and mix until smooth. Take mixture off heat and bring to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, beat both sugars and eggs until well creamed.
4. Add the room temperature chocolate mixture to the sugar mixture and beat a couple minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
6. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans .
7. Bake for 26-28 minutes, or just until center of cake springs back to the touch. Remove from oven. Allow to cool before inverting on a cooling rack and removing from pan.
8. Before layering cake, use a knife to gently cut away any uneven parts at the top or sides of the cake.

Some tips:
1 & 2. Line your cake pans with parchment paper so the cakes pop right out.
3. Use room temperature eggs. Take them from the fridge and let them sit 5 minutes in hot water before using.

Perfectly Smooth Chocolate Marscapone Cream Filling

6.25 oz dark chocolate (60%), chopped
8 oz heavy cream (1 cup)
8 oz mascarpone
1.25 oz sugar (1/4 cup)

1. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer.
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes to melt the chocolate.
4. Stir the mixture until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.
5. Stir in the sugar.
6. Chill until cold enough to whip, but not more than 1 hour (I read that if it gets too cold, the chocolate and cream will separate later).
7. Whip the ganache into soft peaks.
8. Stir in the marscapone.

You can use it immediately between the cakes or refrigerate for later use.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting

8 oz heavy cream (1 cups) – for denser, thicker frosting
~~~~ or ~~~~
16 oz heavy cream (2 cups) – for a lighter, fluffier frosting
11 oz dark chocolate (60%), chopped
2-4 oz powdered sugar (1-2 cups)
4 oz cold butter, cut into 8 pieces

1. Place chocolate in food processor.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmmer.
3. With food processor running, pour hot cream over chocolate. Process until combined, a minute or two.
4. Stop processor and add powdered sugar. Process until combined, about 1 minute.
5. With processor running, drop the butter pieces in through the feeding tube. Wait until the butter is combined before dropping in the next piece. Let the mixture process about 1 minute after all butter has been combined.
6. Now some options:
• If you used 8oz cream, you can cool the frosting to room temperature (about 1 hour) then frost the cake. The frosting will shiny and thick.
• If you used 8oz cream and prefer a lighter color and fluffier texture, chill the mixture until cold (about 1-2 hours) then whip until thick and spreadable. Do not overwhip or it will curdle!
• If you used 16 oz cream, you must chill the mixture until cold (1-2 hours) then whip until thick. Do not overwhip or it will curdle!

Zoo with Cindi and Michelle

This guy gave us a show! Beautiful.

We got the chance to go to the Phoenix Zoo again with Scott's sisters Cindi and Michelle. It was so great to see Cindi and her adorable baby Mason who were visiting from Portland for the weekend. I wasn't feeling well so didn't see her much but my family enjoyed seeing her and my kids think Mason is awesome. He's one and so much fun.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the zoo trip.



I'm sad this one is fuzzy. Mason was so happy to have an animal that he was big enough to crawl on to. :)



Zoo

It's been a long time since I've brought my kids to the zoo. It was fun. I brought the kids and Kim brought hers. We never saw Brianna and Bailey, they wandered separately.  I think Lyndsee's favorite part was the free milk samples. Random, but true. I only took a couple pictures but it was a fun day.

I saw three people who had run the PF Changs Marathon or Half Marathon the day before. They were wearing their shirts and walking funny. I was happy that I wasn't among the "walking funny" crowd this time. I ran the half so that probably saved me some pain. I ran it in about 2:05, so I beat my last time by about 2 minutes. I never could have done it without my friend Barb pacing me. I felt great for the first half, but struggled the second half, not able to find a rythm to my running, nauseous and had a hard time breathing. I'm glad I pulled through and got a PR for Barb or she would have missed her goal of getting me there. She's much faster than me but this time was committed to just helping me get my goal.  What a great friend! The picture below is me with Lindy and Karen who had just run a speedy full marathon and qualified for Boston!!! I'm so happy for them, and a tiny bit jealous I admit.

Merry Christmas

The kids love thier new pajamas, in fact Lyndsee went berserk when she opened her "footlers." The only problem was they are so warm she was cooking in the house. She had to keep opening the door to cool off.

It was a beautiful and Yummy Christmas eve spent with my parents then home for PJ's, watching the Nativity and off to bed.

Luckily the kids all made it onto the Nice list and have had a fun morning trying out their new stuff. We'll be headed to Michelle & Tony's soon for more Christmas fun.

I hope the holiday is as nice for you as it has been for us!

Birthday Girl

She's 14!

Amazing, smart, funny, silly, easily distracted, friendly but still quiet, tumbling, straight A's, lots of friends, a cell phone, texting, messy room, straight teeth, on yearbook staff, track, honors classes, handstands, reads constantly, hates to run, loves York, wants to go on another cruise, loves her cousins, high school soon!

We love her and are so proud of her. 

Christmas Running Party

Islands Running Club after what I hope will become an annual running party! Pictured above are the party attendees after our yummy breakfast. Top row: Karen and Lindy (we let them stand on the fireplace so they could be in the back row of a picture for once.) Front row: Cynthia, Barb and Lisa.

Saturday morning Lindy and Karen started bright and early, so they could have 18 miles by the time we got to breakfast, I joined them 6 miles in for a total of 12 and we picked up Lisa with 10 to go. Lisa was very disappointed when she realized she could have taken an even shorter option to breakfast but we needed her every step of the way! I had mapped 10 miles from my house in what took us in a Z pattern, Lisa of course complained every time we weren't heading directly to the restaurant. :) Barb chose the biking option today and parked at the restaurant and biked for two hours so she would be equally sweaty while eating with us.

The run was great as always. We took a new canal and I really liked it, nice and smooth (no speed bumps to trip on), and it was fun to run through Freestone Park, with lots of runners out and about. We went to Joe's Farm Grill and all got delicious breakfasts. We need to talk to them about adding hot cocoa to the menu though, that was a disappointment. Next time we will have to bring packets and get hot water there.


After breakfast we had a running gift exchange. It was so fun! We had all chosen a running related gift valued in the $10 - $15 dollar range and then we played the 'stealing' game. Karen was first and kept getting stolen from but we all ended up with really nice stuff! Its fun to get and give new gear!


I had left a car at the restaurant the night before so I drove everyone home and hated for it to end. I had looked forward to this run for weeks and felt just as excited for it as I do for races, etc. I hope we can do it every year and I hope more people will be able to make it in years to come, but I'm so glad we had our core group there this time.


Here is an idea of the fun gifts: ininji toe socks, balga socks, blinky light, long sleeve tech shirt, fuzzy socks, aluminum water bottle, ragnar jewelry. Everything was popular, but everyone ended up with the right gift for them. Merry Christmas! I can't wait for next years running party!