Quite Possibly the Most Epic Birthday Cake That Was Neither a Cake, Nor Eaten on a Birthday

So it was Roommate's birthday this past weekend and I wasn't here for it because I was in Boston for my little's college graduation. Luckily, this week's Feast was already a victory feast for my finishing finals, so we turned it into victory birthday feast. I made some fried chicken which came out undercooked (it wouldn't have if I had this awesome thing that Alton Brown says I should own) but the potatoes were tasty and we had broccoli and the first corn on the cob of the season. However, the key piece of the feast was the Robot Versus Ninja Chocolate-Raspberry Cornbread Cake.



Robot Versus Ninja Chocolate Raspberry Cornbread Cake
4 Cups of Corn Meal
4 Cups of Bread Flour (sifted I guess, but I don't have the tools for sifting and mine came out alright)
1 Cup of Sugar
1/4 Cup of Baking Powder
4 Teaspoons of Salt
1 Cup of Oil
4 Cups of Milk
4 Eggs, Beaten

The largest jar of Raspberry Jam you can find
Chocolate shell
I used unsweetened Baker's chocolate, but I don't recommend it, use the semi-sweetened version. The topping took approximately 6 1oz squares.
White Chocolate topping
I would have used Baker's chocolate, but Bravo didn't have any, so I just used some melted white chocolate chips, approximately 1/3 of a cup

Preheat oven to 425

Combine dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Add the wet to dry and mix until just combined.

The issue for me with working with such a high quantity of batter was that I had to use my lobster pot to hold it all so I ended up needing to use my electric mixer to get the batter started. Once most of it was combined I switched to a mixing spoon and the batter came out A-OK. I also like to froth the milk a little bit (just a couple of bubbles on top) It makes the cake a little airier, but it was hard to accomplish that working in such a high quantity.

Split the batter between two greased 10.5 x 3 inch springform pans, bake for approximately 27 minutes. The cakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops are a little brown.

Let the cakes cool completely, you are going to be beating the heck out of them with jam and toppings and you don't want the tops to rip.

Spread raspberry jam on the top of the bottom layer (got that?). Use ALL of the jam. I had a 12 oz jar and that was not nearly enough. The jam will not run if you add it slowly to the cake (two or three tablespoons at a time) and the top layer isn't so heavy that it will cause the jam to squish out the sides once you add it. So, once the jam is added, top it with the other cake.

Melt yer chocolate! I had this little cup with a spout in which I melted my bakers chocolate. This made it easy to pour onto the top of the cake and spread around the top and sides. If you melt it enough, you can work the chocolate like frosting. I put the cake in the freezer to harden the shell. Plus there wasn't enough room in the fridge.

Melt yer other chocolate! Melt down the white chocolate and add it to the top in the center. This was more so that I could add some decorations than enhancing taste. Actually it made it really hard to cut the cake, so this part is 100% optional. Stick it back in the freezer, once everything has set, cut it up or sing or whatever, and enjoy the tasty.

The cake went over pretty well but we still have most of it in the freezer because it is essentially four corn breads in one (if you quarter the recipe and use a 9-in cake pan you can make regular ole corn bread, time is reduced by approximately 5 minutes) and eating it all the time would make use extra fatties.

Feijoada

So I made Feijoda two weeks ago.


Meat Prep


Pot Full of Meat


End Product with Collard Greens and Rice

So yeah, Feijoada. It's the official dish of Brazil, I guess. It came out pretty good and we still have a bunch in the fridge... even after giving away about 1/3 of the leftovers.

When Life Hands Me Lemons, I Make Beef Stew

I made stew tonight for the first time! It came out pretty decently, I must say. I really should have cut up some potatoes but the fact that this is the most TENDER FRIGGIN STEW BEEF EVER makes up for that oversight. CHECK IT!



I followed this recipe from Food Network. I didn't have any Worcestershire Sauce so I substituted a tablespoon of soy sauce and some cayenne pepper and it came out pretty decent. Also: No cornstarch, so I had to substitute twice as much flour.

I should have picked up some crusty rolls while I was at Food World but oh well.

Epic Feast this week. Maybe I'll remember to take pictures and write about it.

Send To Phone

The Wednesday Feast is the New Sunday Dinner

I've started a tradition, I think. Or maybe its too early to call it a tradition and its more of a recurring event that is blossoming into a tradition. I'm talking about my nearly month old Wednesday Feast. Because my roommate and I don't get to spend all that much time hanging out between me being at school forever, he taking hours of capoeira and the both of us spending weekends with out significant others we had to find some time for us to sit down, chill out, and catch up. It started out on Monday nights for Heroes but then we got a TV that doesn't get NBC (its not poor reception it just cannot switch to channel 4). So our "roommate night" was bumped to Wednesdays once Lost started.

I made the decision this semester to cook dinner as often as possible because it will ultimately save a ton of money even if it takes a while longer. So we've been having nice, hearty meals almost every night. Early in the "roommate night" history, the meals I would make were a little nicer or a little more complex than the rest of the week but not by much - fresh veggies instead of frozen or I'd actually make potatoes instead of the insta-flakes. One night three weeks ago I had some steaks that I wanted to make, Zach had some tuna he wanted to make and so we resolved to have a feast the likes of which the apartment had never seen. And thus, Wednesday Feast was born. We had a copious amount meat and fish, in addition to corn and my specialty mashed potatoes. The next Wednesday, we added Kim to the feast and the three of us ate ribs, baked potatoes, and fresh cornbread (the cornbread isn't too big of a deal, I make a fresh batch once every two days or so).

I'm writing about the feast, primarily, so I can talk about last night's epic feast. I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen preparing and it was tiring, hard, and totally worth it. We enjoyed a veggie quiche in a savory crust, popovers, home fries, and a little bit of bacon with irish coffees with freshly whipped cream. The quiche was an ordeal in and of itself. I made the crust from scratch (thanks to Emeril/Food Network for the recipe) and it included a boatload of spices. I learned that I can flavor my crusts, so here comes the chocolate crust experiment the next time I make a berry pie. I didn't have a deep pie dish so everything was a little runny - especially the cheese - but it turned out really well and very flavorful. I wish I had popover cups for the popovers but the muffin tins turned out ok, and the popovers were delicious, especially once smothered in butter and honey. I burned the bacon a little (kudos to Zach for catching that for me) but the potatoes turned out rather well, I sauteed them in the bacon fat with peppers, onions, and the "Essence" from Emeril that was also in the crust of the pie. I highly recommend his spice blend as a good allspice on meat or chicken. The irish coffees were mediocre, its hard to make them when you don't have a real coffee pot (solo press FTL) but Zach did get tasty bourbon and Kim helped out and whipped the cream really well.

I'm looking forward to next week's meal, but I will not be making a quiche again for a long time.

zOMG! I gasped in the library when I saw this...

i am t3h_1337357!!

I'm totally ripping off FUCKYOUPENGUIN.

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? No, seriously I'M FUCKING SCARED.



WHOA! Lookit that goat!

Wills and Trust Gem of the Day

Children's Rights under Intestate Succession

Non-Marital Children

Kinder to kids born out of wedlock now

Can inherit from mom, weird rules about dad

Basically have to show that dad is your dad and has been your dad in the sense of the dad word dad

... this must be truly funny only to me.

Yet another tid bit from my corporations notes

Note on No-Action Letters Interpreting Rule 14a-8

if management believes a shareholder proposal may be properly excluded from the the corporation's proxy statement under rule 14a-8, it must submit to the SEC staff a statement of the reasons why it deems omission of the proposal to be proper. If the Staff agrees with management's statement, it sends management a no-action letter

essentially this means that if the proposal is excluded, the SEC isn't going to show up on boats and wreck your retirement party.

So, again, the lack of updates is sad.

But I have another collection of sweet note taking gems from my law school notes! Because I have to make this crap interesting somehow:

Corporations:

Asset-Based Defensive Strategies

***

Pac-Man Defense: A wants B, B turns around and is all FUCK YOU IMMA BUY YOUR SHIT MOTHERFUCKER

Internal Corporate Governance

As part of corporation's internal governance documents, they must indicate the number of shares the initial board is allowed to sell. This prevents the board from issuing share after share after share and diluting the overall value. Once the board has issued these shares, it cannot issue anymore, and if they want to sell MORE they have to go so the stockholders and say "Yo, let's sell more shares, dudes." and the shareholders must reply "Word, get on that shit."

An Excerpt From My Class Notes

Richard Nixon v. A. Ernest Fitzgerald

• P in this lawsuit seeks relief in civil damages from a former POTUSA


• claim rests on actions allegedly taken in the former P's official capacity during his tenure in office


• D was fired during departmental reorganization because he said the whole thing had to be taken back to formula... I mean the project was over budget and there were a number of issues!


• reports of "disloyalty" surfaced and were given as the basis for wrongful termination


• well, thats too bad because the President fired you in his official capacity and he's immune from prosecution for this type of shit


• "entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability predicated on his official acts"


• just because he's immune here doesn't mean that we can't try to impeach him


• this immunity doesn't leave the people without another venue for remedy


• WHITE BRENNAN MARSHAL AND BLACKMUN DISSENT


• this is some bullsmith guys


• this is why we all came to america, to make sure we didnt have a completely immune king


• way to fuck it up

Yeah, way to go Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor, and Chief Burger. We're gonna have a fucking monarchy and palace guards now. I hope you like being serfs, motherfuckers.

holy balls

its been forever since writing here...

there were some funky things with my account and it wouldn't load up for the longest time, but apparently that was fixed. HOORAY!

Time to finish reading, but I should write something decadent soon.

My Class Schedule

BAM

OMG.

So we all know I am completely insane. I was cleaning up after coming back to NYC and found something I did during finals week while I wasn't studying.



Have fun, figure it out.
I added some stuff when i was re-writing it for the internet. I have it on paper and copied it for posting purposes. Because I am on vacation and have time to waste thats why.

Now to pop Guitar Hero III's cherry.

<3

As this semester comes to a close...

I'm totally slacking off. I've done two torts hypos today. I'm thinking about doing one more before I pack it in for the night and finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the 2nd time. No, I was not a heinous blubbering mess this time around, but I did get misty eyed during the deaths. I almost had the single emo tear for Fred though (and if you don't already know what happens, go fuck yourself. Its been almost 5 months and if you truly cared, you would have already read the book).

Aside from that, I feel like I should work through another torts problem. I've just been outlining my answers, not writing full blown essays, and I've been pretty spot on in most places. I left one or two things out of the second one I did because we didn't cover intentional torts, which this question asked about, and I neglected to say NONFEASANCE because i kind of assumed it was included in my use of Duty to Control and Duty to Protect which are exceptions to the no duty under nonfeasance rule, but Levine wants us to say those things, so I might as well oblige.

Well, i think I'll go play some guitar hero, work through another problem, eat a snack, then finish up HP and go to sleep.

Done in 2
Fish in 3
Home in 5-6
<3

1 down

2 to go.

My contracts final went swimmingly today - I totally kicked ass. My damages questions had some slightly funky math, but I think I got MOST of the points. YES!

I get to chill out, play some guitar hero, maybe read some Harry Potter. Then its time to study for Civil Procedure. Its totally like taking my O.W.L.s. Yeah, I just, as a 22-year-old law student, equated my final exams to a fictional test in a children's book series, wanna fight about it?

yeah, i didnt think so.

fucker.

i mean, would you expect any less of me??

i totally treated myself to mcdonalds today too. i feel like a happy fatty.

i also want to knitknitknit the scarf i posted about yesterday. I want to finish it before the week is over so i can bust out the backer for it... if i was lazy, and i might just be, i may wander on down to canal street and buy some fleece for the backer, which would be the titties. super warm scarf!

time for 5 stars on Stop as made famous by Jane's Addiction on HARD, then some ass kicking on EXPERT on some of the earlier songs, then moving on to some insanely hard songs on HARD...

or i could watch any of the movies i downloaded yesterday and knit for two hours... this latter option seems more appealing, since it will frustrate me much much less...

Holy Shit!! Look at What I Learned to Do Today While Studying for Contracts

Whoa! I can knit argyle now. If I was to be crazy (i mean crazier), i could have knitted in those little dashy lines that are supposed to be there, but im going to add it in with a duplicate stitch when its all done, just because its going to be MUCH MUCH EASIER than trying to knit 1-3 tiny stitches every other row in intarsia.

yay!! I think i may almost be ready to move onto much more difficult pattern knitting... such as ron weasley's animal cracker hat from PoA - the Movie.

I need to knit a back for this scarf though, its a little too thin to be effective and i dont want to risk snagging any of the little crossover pieces and bust up the pattern...

PS: a very VERY special person is getting this for christmas. but i wont say who, but they deserve something this awesome.

Swee-hee-hee-heeeeeeeney

I entered a contest at deviantArt. They were asking for submissions for their Sweeney Todd Movie Poster contest... so i made one...



First prize is a wireless bluetooth wacom tablet. then some iPod, then a wireless mouse.

The Movie Game!

Yay, so here's the idea: I started this a little while ago but stopped for some reason. Six degreesing all of my movies, updated as the day goes on... and into the future!!

Movie Title - Actor Link(s) to Next Movie
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story - Gary Cole, Stephen Root
Office Space - Diedrich Bader
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - George Carlin
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - Keanu Reeves
The Matrix - Hugo Weaving
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Ian McKellen
X2: X-Men United - Brian Cox
The Ring - Naomi Watts
I <3 Huckabees - Jason Schwartzman
Rushmore

I'm about to hit a wall with the connections i think... I'm not sure where to go after x2. I'm sure ill think of something tomorrow...

On a shitty note reading contracts is giving me ulcers, im on the verge of a panic attack and fuckin tears if i read it for an hour straight... but once i stop and do something awesome, like update this blog, watch some of my movie, or eat i feel like a thousand times better, except for when i realize that i am wasting time not studying, then the panic and anxiety settles back in and i have to get back to studying and the anxiety only increases until i stop again and the sick cycle repeats itself.

fuckin finals week sucks my ass. i need it to be December 18th at 10pm so i can go and play fuckin risk and get obliterated with don.

enough of this jibba-jabba i need to continue to be productive...

OMG

ITS

FINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALS

that is all.

see you in like four million years

The Dinner Party

I'm having a mini, yet awesome, dinner party tomorrow for myself, don, emily, and eric. I really want to make a very delectable meal, but i cant make it for just myself! So i decided to treat the 3 people who have been taking care of my mental health for the last few months. Our Menu is as follows:

Caprese Salad
Lemony Fettuccine Alfredo with Asparagus
Oven-Fried Chicken
Golden Delicious Apple Pie

im quite excited at this prospect, considering i also acquired a few new additions to my kitchen:

A Knife set (FINALLY - it even came with 12 steak knives)
Dishes and Bowls (they are gorgeous stoneware - black outside and purple inside and the set came with 4 matching mugs)
Flatware (straight up awesome, no detail, just smoothness)
A cutting board that is the EXACT width of my small counter

although, obtaining these items was an ordeal. I went to Kmart with the intention of getting Custard Cups (the original idea for dessert was Lava Baby Cakes) and getting place settings and such if they were cheap. Well, the dishes were only $14 for settings for four (Dinner Plates, Dessert Plates, Bowls, Mugs) and so were the knives. The flatware was 10 and the cutting board was too, but i was ok with that considering it was the Martha Stewart Collection and the Kmart brand didn't make a wooden cutting board and i wasn't going to get a plastic one. So i get all my stuff (clearly, no custard cups since the dessert is Apple Pie) and walk back home. I get home, unpack all of my awesomeness to discover, much to my chagrin, that the dinner plates are all broken. After much hemming and hawing, and speaking with the Baron von Fishenstein, i went back to kmart to exchange the set. I thought it was gonna be a slight pain, but it was not AND i got the last set of purple/black dishes in the store. So i counted myself lucky.

all i need now are wine glasses (red AND white), a colander, and a complete spice kit and ill be totally set.

tomorrow, after i get out of class, I have to go buy everything for dinner and clean up the apartment and figure out how to get 4 people to eat in my little kitchen. im going to have to steal svets chair i think. needless to say, this is going to be a lavish evening where my friends will be spoiled rotten by my desire to play mommy. i cant wait!

then on friday, im going with to lunch with Professor Haas with Kyle and Jeff. Im positively swoooooning.

peace. love. penguin.
much heart.