It's Definitely Summer Time!

It is definitely summer time around here. With a high over 90 F today, and horrible humidity, the heat has certainly settled in. With all the rain and unseasonably cool temperatures this spring, it actually feels like we skipped spring and landed directly into the heat of summer, but with that brings a lot of BBQ! Tonight we didn't want to cook anything inside because it's just too hot. I bought some salmon burgers at our local Whole Foods Market, and D grilled those up under the blazing sun. I mixed some mayonnaise with wasabi powder (use 1/4 c mayonnaise with 1/2 tsp-1 1/2 tsp of wasabi powder depending on how much heat you want). I served the salmon burgers with the first corn of this season and some chips and guacamole. This meal was perfect for the hot day. I bought a small cod cake for J, and he actually took a couple of bites! And he enjoyed eating a small piece of corn on the cob....although he did seem to like biting off the kernels and then spitting them out! There are going to be a lot of summery meals coming up in our house, and we are so excited that our farm share begins this weekend! Stay cool...

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Meringues

8 egg whites
1 1/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips

Let the egg whites come to room temperature.
Meanwhile, place the sugar into a food processor, and process until the consistency is super-fine (about 1-2 minutes).
Preheat the oven to 200 F.
Using a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on high for a few minutes, until they become foamy and slight peaks have formed. Add the cream of tartar, and continue to whisk on high for another few minutes. Gradually add the sugar, in about 1/8 c increments, and then add the cocoa powder and vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks have formed.
Place about 1/4 c size dollops of the meringue mixture onto baking sheets lined with either Silpats or parchment paper. Sprinkle meringues with 3-4 chocolate chips.
Bake for 45 minutes, rotate trays and bake for another 45-60+ minutes. The baking time largely depends on the humidity. The more humid it is, the longer the meringues will need to bake. Check them by lightly tapping them with your finger. They should be almost solid when they are finished. Open the oven a crack and let them cool fully inside the oven, and enjoy!

After D and I made the ice cream the other night, we had a whole bunch of leftover egg whites that we didn't want to go to waste. And, since we weren't in the mood for scrambled egg whites, I thought I'd make chocolate meringues. They were delicious! Not too sweet, super light, and crunchy:) We ended up going to a Memorial Day BBQ at a cousin's house tonight, so we brought the meringues along. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention...J LOVED these!

BBQ with Friends and Little Ones

Sorry, no picture here tonight....I simply forgot! And, the spotty blog posting lately is still due to D being on vacation...and to our anniversary dinner out last night in celebration of our 4th anniversary:)

Tonight, we had a couple of our friends and their kids (3 adults and 3 kids under four) over for dinner tonight. We made the meal really simple with just some grilled chicken sausages, brats, and veggie burgers, chips, etc. It was fun to kick off Memorial Day weekend with friends and the grill. Luckily the rain held off just long enough to grill the food and let the kids get some of their energy out before it was time to eat. The best part of the meal might have been the dessert...but, I'm biased! Yesterday I taught D how to make a custard for ice cream, and showed him all the steps necessary to make homemade ice cream. I'm not so secretly hoping that now that he has these skills, he'll put them to good use and make me ice cream sometime! We did the basic custard recipe from the spumoni post, and then made the pistachio and the chocolate flavors. In order to do this, we halved the custard, put 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and 3/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder into the chocolate flavor, and 1 tsp almond extract along with 3/4 c of pistachios for the pistachio ice cream. The ice cream was a total hit with everyone, including the kids. J really enjoyed his ice cream, except for the brief moment when he got an ice cream headache...poor guy! I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

So Much for Pasta...

Here's the deal...I had planned a pasta dinner with a vegetarian red sauce full of vegetables, but it never happened. When we got back from the grocery store, I immediately set out to boil a large pot of water, but was alarmed to see that the water looked brown! I tried running it for a bit, but to no avail. I got on our city's website looking for notices about hydrant flushing or water problems, but came up empty handed. At this point, I decided it was simply too late to get water boiled and sauce made in time for dinner, so I sent D and J off to the store to buy s0me bottled water. I spent the next 30 minutes on the phone trying to reach the city and scrambling our dinner together. We ended up having a delightful meal of grilled cheese with tomato (no tomato for J), tomato soup, and carrots dipped in guacamole. J actually loved the tomato soup, as well as the spicy guac! The pasta and sauce will have to wait for another night...oh, and the picture, that's the lake in our side yard...

Maple Chicken with Apples, Creamy Polenta, and Spinach

It has been great to have D around for this entire week and get a break from the kitchen for a few days. Today was gloomy and stormy here, with torrents of rain and thunder storms. Although the air temperature wasn't too cold, the weather seemed to lend itself to something more "warming" for dinner. I wanted something low maintenance as well, and this meal was perfect. I made the maple chicken cutlets with apple, and served it on top of a bed of creamy polenta from last week's recipes. I finished off the meal with some steamed spinach, and voila! Tasty and so simple. The apples were sweet like candy, and the cheesiness of the polenta really balanced the whole meal out very well.

Pizza on the Grill

Tonight was the perfect night for grilled pizza! The sun actually came out today, and the temperature rose into the low 70's! When D got home from work, he fired up the grill, and about 15 minutes later our pizza was ready to eat. J and I made the pizza dough this morning, using the modified pizza dough recipe. The meal felt really summery and tasted absolutely delicious. J enjoyed his pizza as well, until he had a giant glob of cheese he was having some trouble chewing...so he moved onto some cheerios and milk for dessert;)

D is actually on vacation starting tonight, so I will most likely be taking a little hiatus from the kitchen and from the blog for the next few days...I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Roasted Tomatoes and Eggplant with Cucumber Salad, Yogurt, Pine Nuts, and Rice

Adapted From Fine Cooking Magazine
Roasted Eggplant and Tomatoes
1 medium sized eggplant, chopped into 1" pieces
1 pint grape tomatoes
3 tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
salt

Place the eggplant in a colander and salt heavily. Place into the sink and let it sit for at least 30 minutes, and up to one hour. Stir occasionally to release moisture. Once salted, rinse VERY WELL in cold water and let drain for another 15 minutes or so.
Preheat the oven to 450 F.
Place the eggplant into a large bowl and toss with 2 tbs of olive oil. Spread the eggplant onto a jelly roll pan, and place into the oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally and checking to make sure it is not getting over-cooked.
Place the tomatoes in another bowl with the remaining olive oil and rosemary. Put tomatoes on another baking sheet and place into the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until they are browned and deflated.
Remove vegetables from oven and set aside.

Cucumber Salad
1 medium shallot, thinly sliced and halved
2 tbs red wine vinegar
salt to taste
1 medium English cucumber, sliced and halved.
juice from one lemon

Place the shallot and vinegar into a small bowl and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Add the salt, cucumber, and lemon juice. Toss.

To Serve
Toast about 1/4 c of pine nuts in a dry stainless steel frying pan. (This takes about 3 minutes total).
Cook 1-1/2 c of dry Basmati rice in a rice cooker according to the directions on the package.
Serve roasted vegetables and cucumber salad on top of the rice, add a generous dollop of Greek yogurt, and sprinkle with pine nuts.

The original recipe was recommended as a vegetarian lunch that was easy to pack, and to be served with naan or pita bread instead of rice, but I thought that this would make a nice spring dinner. First, I have to admit to not washing the eggplant sufficiently after salting, so it was a bit too salty for our tastes, however, putting that slight problem aside, this meal was quite delicious. The tomatoes were so sweet and wonderful, and the tanginess of the cucumbers really went perfectly with the yogurt and the full-flavored pine nuts. The meal was filling, but not overly so, and it was definitely healthy hitting up vegetables, protein, and grain! And, although it appears to be fairly involved, it was really quite simple.

Food for Thought: Salting eggplant takes a bit of time, but it really improves the overall flavor and cooking of the vegetable. The salt helps to bring out a bit of the moisture and bitterness in the flavor, and it prevents the eggplant from soaking up a ton of oil. Fine Cooking Magazine has a great mini-tutorial on the proper way to cook eggplant. Check it out!

Capellini with Cream Spinach and Nutmeg

Adapted from Mark Bittman in the NY Times
6 oz spinach
1/4 c cream
1 1/2 tbs butter
10 oz capellini
nutmeg
parmesan cheese
fresh pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, salt, and add spinach. Cook for about a minute, and drain spinach from pot (using either a pasta insert or tongs). Blanch the spinach and chop.
Place the capellini into the boiling water and cook until it is just al dente.
Meanwhile, place the cream and butter into a small sauce pot to boil. Add the chopped spinach and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.
Drain the pasta, toss with the spinach sauce and garnish with nutmeg, parmesan cheese, and freshly ground pepper.

This weekend's NY Times Magazine had a Mark Bittman feature on various pasta primaveras. A lot of these pasta sound really wonderful, and they're all super easy as well. Since it's still cold and rainy here this week, I thought that a creamed spinach and nutmeg pasta would be the perfect thing for dinner. And, since we've had spinach for the past few nights in a row, I thought it would be fun to continue the trend...no more spinach tomorrow night, I promise! I was totally pleased with the flavors in this dish. The nutmeg really added warmth, and the sauce was rich and buttery. My only complaint was that I didn't have as much spinach as I would have liked, and as we all well know, fresh spinach really cooks down to almost nothing. Next time I make this meal, I will definitely be doubling or tripling the amount of spinach (and thus might have to adjust the cream and butter accordingly). D enjoyed the dinner as much as I did, and J ate some, although he specialized in some noodles with tomato sauce. Overall, another great recipe for the rotation!

Parmesan Polenta and Spicy Sausage Sauce with Spinach and Toasted Pine Nuts

Adapted From Cooking Light Magazine
Parmesan Polenta and Spicy Sausage Sauce
1 tbs olive oil
3 Mild Italian pre-cooked chicken sausages
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbs oregano, dried
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 c fresh basil, chopped
2 c chicken broth
1 c water
3/4 c polenta
1/2 c parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Place the oil into a large skillet. Once hot, add sausage and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until it is browned. Add the onion and saute for another 5 minutes, to soften. Add the garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, and tomato. Turn up heat to medium-high, and saute for at least 15 minutes, or until the sauce begins to reduce.
Meanwhile, in a 3 qt sauce pot, heat the broth and the water. Once it has begun to boil, add the polenta, and whisk well to avoid lumps. Bring down to a simmer and simmer for about 20-25 minutes, whisking frequently, until the polenta is tender. Add the parmesan cheese, and whisk well, cooking for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Just before serving, stir about half of the fresh basil into the sausage-tomato sauce. Spoon polenta into a pasta bowl, top with the sausage sauce and garnish with some fresh basil and parmesan cheese. Serve along side the spinach with toasted pine nuts (recipe below).


Adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
Spinach and Toasted Pine Nuts
1 1/2 tbs olive oil
3 tbs shallot, chopped
2 tbs pine nuts
1 bag of pre-washed baby spinach

Heat the oil. Once hot, add the shallot and saute for 2-4 minutes, or until it just starts to brown. Add the pine nuts and saute for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Finally, add the spinach and saute until just wilted (another 1-3 minutes).

Tonight's recipe came from last month's Cooking Light Magazine, and it couldn't be more perfect for the cold spring day we're having. Since the recipes were entirely new to me, I only changed a few very minor things. The meal was absolutely scrumptious! The polenta was so rich and creamy, and was perfectly balanced by the slight heat in the sausage-tomato sauce. The spinach added a well-rounded finish to the meal with the pine nuts adding the perfect amount of flavor and crunch. I enjoyed mixing the spinach into the polenta and sauce as well. D enjoyed eating it as much as I did, making sure to check and see if we had enough for leftovers for his lunch tomorrow (we definitely did!), and J even ate some of the sausage and polenta. This whole meal was a total success!

Salmon Burgers with Lemon-Garlic Spinach and Rice Pudding

Sorry for the few day hiatus here on the blog. Life has been hectic this week with D either on-call or working late every night but Tuesday this past week. This weekend has been equally as exhausting with D getting only an hour of sleep (and getting paged and having to make phone calls multiple times in the middle of the night) on Friday. This meant that we were both recovering yesterday, and today we had a ton of house projects to get done, and a birthday party for J's friend. Tonight we needed an EASY dinner. Luckily for us, the salmon burgers at Whole Foods were on sale, buy-one-get-one-free! So, lemon-dill salmon burgers it was, with sauteed lemon-garlic spinach on the side. All I had to do was get the spinach ready and cook the burgers. I sauteed about 1 tbs of olive oil in a large saute pan, 2 cloves of minced garlic, the juice from one lemon, and a bag of pre-washed baby spinach until the spinach had wilted. The meal was fresh, delicious, and most importantly super easy! J had some scrambled eggs on a half of hamburger bun, which he happily dipped into some ketchup!

1 1/4 c 2% milk, divided
1 c skim milk
1/4 c Jasmine rice
3 1/2 tbs sugar
1 tbs vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 large egg yolk

Place 1 c of the 2% milk, skim milk, rice, sugar, vanilla bean paste, and cinnamon into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, stirring frequently for about 20-25 minutes or until the rice is completely softened. Take the sauce pan off the heat.
In another small bowl, whisk the egg yolk. Add about 1/2 c of the hot rice mixture to the egg yolk, whisk well, and return rice and egg mixture to the saute pan with the remaining rice mixture.
Place the pan over medium heat again, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, and add the remaining milk. Once it reaches a boil, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, and place a piece of parchment paper onto the top of the pudding. Place into a bowl sitting on an ice bath (to cool it quickly). Once cooled, place into fridge to keep.

Yesterday morning when waiting around for some furniture to be delivered, I decided to whip up some rice pudding. (Sorry for the blueish hue to this picture...I'm not quite sure what happened here!) I had seen a recipe for "Best-Ever Rice Pudding" in Fine Cooking Magazine, and thought I'd give it a go, while slightly modifying the recipe to my liking of course:)

The rice pudding had a slightly brownish tinge due to the cinnamon, which I didn't mind, but it did not look like traditional rice pudding! In addition, I think that during the cooling process, it may have gotten a bit more solid than I would prefer, making it more "scoopable" than "pudding-like" once fully chilled. To remedy this, I will add more milk (closer to 1/2-3/4 c during the egg-milk final cooking phase) next time I make the pudding. All of this being said, the pudding was quite delicious. Certainly hearty and flavorful, but not too heavy or too sweet. It is tasty served warm as well as cold, and even better with a small amount of whipped cream on top!

Vegetarian Summer Rolls with Peanut Dipping Sauce

Summer Rolls
4 c thin rice noodles, cooked and cooled
2 c bean sprouts, rinsed and dried
1 1/2 c carrots, thinly sliced into 2" long sticks
1 c scallions, sliced into 2" long pieces
4 oz pre-cooked Thai flavored tofu, sliced into thin sticks
1/2 c fresh cilantro, rinsed and dried
1/2 c fresh mint leaves, rinsed and dried
8 rice spring roll sheets (dried)

Place a pot of water onto boil. Meanwhile, prepare all of the vegetables for the rolls. Once the water is almost boiling, remove from heat and pour into a large Pyrex bowl. Carefully dip the rice spring rolls sheets into the water, quickly submerging the wrapper to make it soft. Place softened wrapper onto a plate and place about 1/4 c of the rice noodles on one end. Top with tofu and vegetables, and roll up (like an eggroll). Put aside onto a clean plate, and continue until all of the wrappers and fillings are used up. Place plate into the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.


Peanut Dipping Sauce
3/4 c peanut butter
3 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs water
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced

Place all ingredients in a small sauce pot and heat, stirring constantly until the peanut butter has melted and a slightly thick sauce has formed. Add more water if it appears too thick for dipping.

D and I have been talking about eating summer rolls for a while now, and since the weather has finally taken a turn for the warmer, tonight seemed like the perfect night to indulge. Although these rolls look rather fancy and seem like they might take a while to prepare, I made the entire meal in about 30 minutes. The rice paper wrappers are remarkably durable and simple to work with, and they stick easily to themselves making for very simple rolling. The fresh cilantro and mint impart a wonderful flavor, and the scallion gives a mild "bite" as well as a nice crunch. D and I really enjoyed eating dinner tonight! Along with the peanut sauce, we used some sriracha sauce for dipping as well. These rolls also keep well, making any leftovers a tasty treat for lunch the next day! I made J a roll with just noodles and tofu, and he seemed excited about it at first, but in the end he preferred hummus, pita, and yogurt for dinner!

A Perfect Meal for a Warm Mother's Day

Today was Mother's Day, and since we all went out to a nice brunch, we wanted something easy and lighter for dinner. With J flexing his "2 year old muscles" all day and making me really remember the realities of being a mom, I couldn't have been happier with the ease of this dinner! I made a huge salad with cucumber, tomato, avocado, olives, carrots, lettuce, and chick peas. To dress the salad I took out a grapefruit flavored white wine vinegar and a tarragon olive oil. This was definitely a hearty salad on its own, but I wanted something else to go along with it.

While J was taking his afternoon nap (thank you for actually napping on Mother's Day!), D fired up the BBQ grill. He sliced up a giant eggplant, lightly drizzled it with some olive oil, and grilled it a few minutes a side, until it was cooked through. We let it cool, and then removed the skin. Then, right before throwing the salad together, I made the baba ghanoush. The baba was exceptionally flavorful tonight, and D and I both really enjoyed eating it! We ate the baba on a delicious fresh, airy Paesano bread from our favorite local bake house. Good thing there's a bunch of baba ghanoush left over for my lunch tomorrow!

Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Slaw and Avocado Cream

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
1 lb chicken tenders
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp salt
zest from 1 lime
juice from 2 limes
1/2 c light sour cream
1/2 avocado, peeled and chopped
3 tbs milk
3 c coleslaw mix
1/2 c scallions, chopped
1/2 c fresh cilantro, chopped
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
6" corn tortillas

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Meanwhile, rub the chicken with the chile powder, garlic powder, cumin, and salt. Once the pan in hot, place the chicken into the pan and cover.
While the chicken in cooking, combine the lime zest, juice from one lime, sour cream, milk, and avocado in a blender. Puree mixture until smooth and thick. If it's too thick, thin with more more, and if it's too runny, add more sour cream.
Flip the chicken when browned on one side. Next, combine the slaw, juice from the second lime, scallions, cilantro, olive oil, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well.
Once chicken is cooked through and browned on both sides, serve in warmed tortillas, topped with slaw and avocado cream.

Since today is Cinco de Mayo, I had to make something with a Mexican flair. I came across this recipe in the latest Cooking Light Magazine, and made a few minor changes to my taste. The tacos were delicious. D agreed as well, and J even enjoyed eating a chicken tender. The chicken was flavorful and moist, and the avocado cream seemed decadent. The slaw not only gave a wonderful flavor to the tacos, but it also added a really delightful crunch! The avocado cream would go perfectly with tortilla chips, or even on vegetables. It was really yummy! We'll definitely see these tacos again...

Udon Noodles with Broccolini and Spicy Tofu

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light Magazine
8 oz extra firm tofu
2 tbs olive oil, divided
2 tbs sesame oil, divided
2 tbs hoisin sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
2-3 tsp sriracha, divided
8 oz udon noodles
8 oz broccolini
2 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbs fresh grated ginger
1 c radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 c cashews

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Drain water from tofu, pressing carefully between two plates.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs sesame oil, hoisin sauce, and 1 tsp sriracha. Add tofu to the bowl and toss well, letting it sit for about 10 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with tin foil, and place the tofu on the sheet, using a slotted spoon to drain the marinating liquid. Retain the liquid. Place the tofu into the oven for about 20-25 minutes, flipping midway through the cooking.
While the tofu is cooking, cook the udon noodles according to the directions on the package. Place the broccolini into the water with the udon about 3 minutes into cooking. Drain both the noodles and the broccolini.
Add remaining olive oil, ginger, sriracha (to taste), rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce to the retained marinating liquid, and whisk together. Toss the tofu, udon, broccolini, and radishes in the mixture. Top with cashews when serving.

Tonight's meal was a slight adaptation from a recipe in the latest Cooking Light Magazine. D and I are always in search of new and exciting vegetarian meals, and this one did not disappoint. The tofu was firm and nicely flavored, and the overall sauce had just the right amount of heat. J actually enjoyed the tofu, and even ate some of the noodles. He was also loving eating cashews! This recipe definitely took a bit more time to prepare than some of my go-to recipes, but I think it was well worth the extra effort. Mostly, it was just allowing ample time for the tofu to really bake. D and I both prefer our tofu to be on the firmer or crunchier side, so feel free to cook it shorter or longer depending on the desired texture.

Tortellini Asparagus Salad

Tonight we felt like something lighter and easy with all the eating we did over the weekend. D remembered this tortellini asparagus salad, and it seemed like the perfect thing. We had some left over roasted red peppers from this weekend's celebration, so they were added to the mix. J even wanted to try one of the "worms":) The salad was just as delicious as I remembered. The dressing was light, but flavorful, and the asparagus was super sweet and tender. J even ate some of the asparagus dipped in dressing. This was a really simple meal to give us some rest after one busy weekend.

Garbage Truck Birthday Cake for J!

This weekend was a big weekend, filled with family and celebrating J turning 2 years old! His actual birthday was Friday, and we took him out to one of his favorite Italian restaurants for some pasta and ice cream. That was definitely a big hit! The festivities continued with a visit to our local petting farm, and then a big birthday party/brunch on Sunday morning. Since we were expecting around 25 people Sunday, I decided to save myself the trouble of cooking for the actual brunch and ordered a nice spread from Whole Foods. But I just had to make J a birthday cake. He had requested "chocolate", so that was a no-brainer. And, since this little man LOVES trucks, especially garbage trucks, I had to attempt to make one in the shape of a garbage truck.

I have to admit that this cake proved to be a bit more difficult that I had initially anticipated. The first glitch occurred when I accidentally left out half of the sugar in one of the cakes. This resulted in an obvious taste difference, but also a really dense and horrible texture. I realized immediately, and had to bake another cake the following morning! I used one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes for the cake layers. It's from Ina Garten and it's called Beatty's Chocolate Cake. It's always incredibly moist, and absolutely delicious! Plus, it really is fail-proof, easy to make (if you follow the recipe!). Instead of dividing the batter among two 8" round cake pans as directed, I baked the entire recipe in a 12X16" sheet cake pan. I made two recipes total, to result it two 12X16" cakes.

Once these cakes had cooled, I made the frosting. For this, again I used one of my go-to recipes, which also happens to be an Ina Garten recipe. I used the cream cheese butter cream frosting recipe from her flag cake. I substituted 8 oz of the full-fat cream cheese with the low-fat variety. The key here is to let the butter and cream cheese come completely to room temperature. This takes a while, so plan ahead! When the frosting was finished, I iced on top of one of the cakes, and then layered on the second cake.

Next, I placed a piece of parchment paper on top of the layered cake, and used a marker to draw out the truck shape onto the paper. I then removed the paper, cut the paper into the shape of the truck, and replaced the paper on top of the layered cake. With a large bread knife, I cut the cake into the shape of the truck, using the parchment paper guide. I then removed the paper, and got to work frosting the entire cake. But, before I could frost, I had to make the frosting into the wonderful garbage truck green! So, I added some green food coloring gel to the frosting, and mixed it up very well. I then iced the entire cake. Somewhere in the middle of frosting the cake, I ran out of icing, and had to make a second batch. (Luckily I had predicted that this would occur, so I had enough butter and cream cheese at room temperature!)

Here's where the second glitch occurred. After the entire cake was frosted green, I attempted to make black frosting. I had done some research, and it seemed that simply mixing the primary colors (green, red, and blue) would result in black. Well, this didn't really happen. I kept getting various shades of what D and I referred to as "poop brown". So, I tried adding various food coloring dyes, going along with the premise that "black is all the colors"...Well, at 1030pm on Saturday night (the night before J's party), I had only succeeded in "poop brown", and I gave up. I sent D and his brother (who was in town for the party) out to the local grocery store in search of black decorator icing. Luckily they returned with some black icing in hand, and I was able to finish the cake in time for the party!

The cake was a total hit. Everyone at the party loved eating it, including J who apparently told his teachers at school today all about his "birthday pake" (his word for cake!).