Chocolate Almond Waffles with Raspberry Sauce

10. February 2014 · 100 comments · Categories: Breakfast, Brunch, cooking, Dessert, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Chocolate Almond Waffles ~ ElephantEats.com

I’m not always the easiest person to live with.

I know you all probably find that very hard to believe ;)

Chocolate Almond Waffles ~ ElephantEats.com

Although Nate often purposefully annoys me (though he’ll deny it), he also does a lot of sweet things on a regular basis. He’s extremely thoughtful and emotionally expressive. He will randomly buy me little “tasty treats” if he sees a dessert or something that he thinks I might like. He definitely knows the way to my heart!

While I do cook dinner for Nate weekly, I think that it’s not so special anymore since I do it all the time. To mix things up and show him that I appreciate him, I decided to make him a special breakfast. 

Chocolate Almond Waffles ~ ElephantEats.com

These waffles are chocolatey, but they’re not overly sweet. They’re totally appropriate for breakfast as opposed to dessert. The tart and sweet raspberry sauce is the perfect accompaniment and both have a subtle hint of almond flavor. 

This is the perfect breakfast to surprise your special someone with on Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Almond Waffles ~ ElephantEats.com

In other news, LC and my painting of her made it onto a buzzfeed list (she’s #10)! That sadly is probably the coolest thing that has ever happened, and probably every will happen, to me (and her). 

Buzzfeed 21 Signs You’re A Cat Lady In Training ~ ElephantEats.com

 

Chocolate Almond Waffles with Raspberry Sauce
A not too sweet chocolate waffle with a sweet and tart raspberry sauce that's perfect for a special breakfast!
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Waffles
  1. 1 cup all purpose flour
  2. 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  3. 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
  4. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  5. 1/8 teaspoon salt
  6. 1/4 cup sugar
  7. 1/4 cup almond paste
  8. 2 1/4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
  9. 3 tablespoons butter
  10. 2 large eggs
  11. 1 cup 2% milk
  12. 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Raspberry Sauce
  1. 2 cups frozen raspberries, thawed
  2. 2 Tbsp almond paste
  3. 2-3 Tbsp water.
Waffles
  1. Preheat oven to 300.
  2. Mix first 5 ingredients into large bowl.
  3. In a small food processor or blender, blend sugar and almond paste. Add to flour mixture.
  4. Heat chocolate and butter in a small microwave-safe dish in the microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until completely melted.
  5. Pour chocolate into medium bowl. Whisk in eggs, then milk, and almond extract. Gradually whisk milk mixture into dry ingredients.
  6. Following manufacturer's instructions, make waffles with batter (waffles will be somewhat soft when removed from pan).
  7. Place finished waffles on baking sheet in oven as you make the rest to keep them hot and crispy.
Raspberry Sauce
  1. Blend raspberries and 1 Tbsp water in a food processor. Strain raspberry mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, running a spoon back and forth over inside of sieve until all that's left in the sieve is seeds. Frequently scrape bottom of sieve, where strained pulp is coming out, into the bowl. Discard seeds.
  2. Add raspberry puree back into food processor. Add almond paste and 1-2 Tbsp water and blend until sauce is to your liking. Serve over waffles.
Adapted from Bon Appetit
https://elephanteats.com/

House Update #3! – Tile Overload

05. February 2014 · 52 comments · Categories: house, life · Tags: , ,

Well, I haven’t done much cooking lately, and the cooking I’ve done didn’t get photographed, so I figured it’s time for a house update.

I showed you recently that our house has a new roof! And now, after being delayed for over 2 weeks, we finally have new windows!!! I’m super excited about this because these windows were about to start delaying our project, but luckily the contractor could mostly work around it until they finally arrived in the nick of time. 

Of course I forgot to take a pic with the windows completely in, but here’s a progress pic when they had removed the upstairs windows but hadn’t put new ones it- i.e. there were two gaping holes in the house. They were there installing when I took this pic, though. They didn’t leave the house like that!

House New Windows

If you look very closely, you can see the new triple windows on the ground floor. So pretty!

I also went to the new tile store a couple weekends ago and finalized all my tile selections. I also met with the tile installer so I finally know the amounts of tile I need and can place my order.

I should really create a moodboard, but for now I’ll just tell you the following:

Master Bath:

Our master bath is going to have a stacked slate ledgestone wall behind the vanity as like a feature wall. This is the stone:

Slate Ledgestone

 Here’s an example of something similar to what I’m planning that I found on Houzz (my favorite website):

The vanity is going to be a custom rustic wood piece I found on Etsy. I’m very excited for it to arrive. They’re also going to make me matching rustic wood mirrors. I’m still deciding on sconces but our faucets are going to be Oil Rubbed Bronze finish. 

Because I really want the accent wall to stand out, the floor is just a basic ivory marble like this:

Crema Marfil 12x12

The shower is just plain ivory with a 5-6″ strip of slate tile accent border that coordinates with the accent wall.

I don’t know what to choose for the counters! I have a feeling it’s going to be ivory of some sort as well, although I’d like to bring in a different color from the slate that would go with the wood vanity.

Hall Bath:

For the hall bath I found this really fun penny tile that I’m also going to have going up the entire wall behind the vanity:

Terra Tile and Marble- Penny Round Blue Yellow

The mirror will be set into the penny tile and framed out with a white border tile.

The faucet finish is chrome, along with the light fixtures. The floor is going to be a plain white marble. And the vanity is going to be a basic natural birch piece.

3rd Floor Bath:

For the 3rd floor bath, I’m reusing the pedestal sink from the old bathroom. The floors are going to be this blue/green porcelain:

Blue Wave Porcelain

You can’t tell much from the pics, but it’s a really interesting tile.

The shower is going to have white subway tile with the prettiest irridescent mosaic border!:

Iridescent mosain tile

I’m very excited for it. 

Laundy/Mudroom:

The laundry room is going to have an antique terra cotta looking tile:

Saltillo Antique Red

The desk/cabinets in there are going to be sage green :) I really wanted them for my kitchen but my mom convinced me to stick with a basic white in the kitchen.

The only tile I haven’t decided on yet is the kitchen backsplash. I think I’m going to wait on that since, as my mom pointed out, I could totally move into the house without a backsplash. I’d rather wait on things I don’t ahve to do RIGHT NOW, as I already have 10,000 other decisions to make…like my lighting fixtures- the current bane of my existence :(

A Wintry Gingerbread Cake

27. January 2014 · 118 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake, cooking, Dessert, food, life, recipes · Tags: , , , ,

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting ~ ElephantEats.com

I mentioned that amongst our changes from our usual Christmas feast, this year I made dessert. I had seen a recipe for a gingerbread layer cake with cream cheese frosting online some weeks before Christmas. 

Of course when I went to actually find said recipe, I hadn’t marked it down anywhere. Does that ever happen to you? So frustrating!

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting ~ ElephantEats.com

Well, I commenced a new search and was pleased to find this recipe from Good Housekeeping that seemed to be exactly like the original. The result was the most delicious, moist gingerbread cake, with a lemony cream cheese frosting that was a perfect complement. I had to even out the tops of the cake layers so they would lay flat and I couldn’t stop myself from eating the pieces I cut off- they were so good I made myself sick. 

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting ~ ElephantEats.com

I wanted a wintry garnish, but wasn’t sure if a holly branch was toxic or something, so I put a sprig of rosemary and some dried cranberries :)

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting ~ ElephantEats.com

I just realized that this picture kind of looks like a Christmas Pac-Man.

My mom made this a couple days ago and she said she used orange instead of lemon zest and she said that it was yummy as well!

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves 10
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Gingerbread Cake
  1. 3 cup(s) all-purpose flour
  2. 1 tablespoon(s) ground ginger
  3. 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
  4. 3/4 teaspoon(s) baking soda
  5. 3/4 teaspoon(s) salt
  6. 1 jar(s) (12 ounces) light (mild) molasses, 1 1/2 cups
  7. 3/4 cup(s) (1 1/2 sticks) margarine, softened, substitute butter
  8. 3/4 cup(s) granulated sugar
  9. 2 large eggs
Cream Cheese Frosting
  1. 1 package(s) (16 ounces) confectioners' sugar
  2. 1 package(s) (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
  3. 4 tablespoon(s) margarine, softened, substitute butter
  4. 2 teaspoon(s) freshly grated lemon peel
Gingerbread Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with waxed paper; grease paper. Dust pans with flour.
  2. In medium bowl, mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. In 4-cup glass measuring cup, whisk molasses with 1 cup water.
  3. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat margarine with granulated sugar until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until creamy, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula.
  4. Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. At low speed, alternately add flour mixture and molasses mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat until blended.
  5. Pour batter into pans and spread evenly. Stagger pans on 2 oven racks, so layers are not directly above one another. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of each layer comes out clean.
  6. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Run small knife around sides of pans to loosen layers. Invert layers onto wire racks to cool completely; discard waxed paper.
Cream-Cheese Frosting
  1. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat frosting ingredients just until blended. Increase speed to medium; beat until frosting is smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Makes about 2 1/2 cups frosting.
To assemble cake
  1. Place 1 cake layer, rounded side down, on cake plate; spread with 1/3 cup frosting. Top with second layer; spread with another 1/3 cup frosting, then top with remaining layer. Frost top and side of cake with remaining frosting. Refrigerate if not serving right away.
Notes
  1. -I find that it's best to shave off the top of the cake layers to make them flatter on top if they're too domed.
  2. -It's easiest to frost the cake layers if they've been chilled in the fridge or freezer.
https://elephanteats.com/

A new kitty portrait and a new roof!

21. January 2014 · 98 comments · Categories: crafts, house, life · Tags:

Well, I’ve been doing some cooking but I haven’t had the energy to take out my camera, so no food pics for you this week. But I do want to share that I made a Wild Rice Mushroom Soup that was seriously amazing and then I happened to stumble upon another great recipe- Tortellini with Italian Sausage, Fennel and Mushroom. I highly recommened you guys make both of them…YUM. Unless you don’t like mushrooms, sorry!

I’ll be back soon with a recipe but in the meantime I thought I’d share some things with you :)

First, our new roof is on! We went with the “Slate” grey color. It was the second darkest color other than black. It’s much darker than the previous roof, which I’m happy about. Here’s the “before:”

Roof "before" ~ ElephantEats.com

And the “after:”

Exterior New Roof Timberline Ultra Series Slate ~ ElephantEats.com

They were roofing the day I took the pic, hence the garbage sitting on the roof. It will look a lot darker once we get the house repainted I think. Also, there was frost on the roof which is also making it appear lighter than it actually is. And yes, I did blur out the info on the giant sign in our yard in case you were wondering.

Apparently the framing inside the house is complete now and the subs (the electrician, plumber and Heating/AC guy) are there working this week. It’s moving along!

In other news…

So in addition to making Nate’s mom granola for Christmas, I also painted a new cat portrait for my blogger friend, Emma! She had inquired about commissioning a portrait for a while but finally decided to tell her boyfriend about it so he could take matters into his own hands and turn it into a pseudo surprise xmas present. 

Custom Cat Portrait "Beata" ~ by ElephantEats.com

Emma has been wanting me to paint her kitty, Beata. I have to say that Beata is one of the most beautiful and photogenic cats I’ve ever seen! It also helped that Emma’s boyfriend sent me a great pic to work from. He told me that it was very important that I capture Beata’s “milk stain” lip and white paws, as they are her trademarks. Also, she has the most beautiful blue eyes!

Custom Cat Portrait "Beata" ~ by ElephantEats.com

I know I say this every time, but I think this is seriously my favorite portrait I’ve done so far! The picture I had to work from was such good quality that I even decided to attempt the background, instead of doing my usual solid color. I also chose to wrap the painting around the sides.

Custom Cat Portrait "Beata" ~ by ElephantEats.com

Custom Cat Portrait "Beata" ~ by ElephantEats.com

I got this kind of varnish to put on top and protect the painting and I stupidly got the “satin” instead of “matte” finish, making it shiny and hard to photograph. Actually the best pic I got was with my iphone before I put that varnish on:

Custom Cat Portrait "Beata" ~ by ElephantEats.com

I’m happy to say that Emma loved her Christmas present! Emma, you’ll have to let me know if Beata approves too ;)

Rainbow Cookie Remembrance

14. January 2014 · 126 comments · Categories: Baking, Dessert, food, life, recipes · Tags: , ,

Rainbow Cookies ~ ElephantEats.com

I don’t know if you guys remember, but about a year ago, Nate’s family friend Henny passed away unexpectedly. It’s been weird trying to come to terms with the fact that we won’t ever see him again. We didn’t see him on a regular basis, so it didn’t sink in right away. He used to invite us to his Brooklyn apartment for delicious home-cooked meals every few months so when we hadn’t been there in a while, it hit us that we’d never go there again.

Aside from Henny’s dinner parties, the one tradition we shared was including him in Nate’s mom’s Christmas dinner. I’m not sure when this started as it was before I entered the picture, but he always played a part at Christmas. Henny was Jewish so he didn’t have his own Christmas to celebrate and since Nate’s Christmas is just his immediate family, another guest was always welcome. 

Rainbow Cookies ~ ElephantEats.com

Henny was in charge of cooking the main course, beef and he also brought dessert. This usually consisted of some sort of chocolate cake and his famous rainbow cookies! He used to only make these rainbow cookies at Christmas and we always looked forward to them. He always made enough for us to take leftovers home with us since Nate loves them, and they’re one of my favorites too.

Rainbow Cookies ~ ElephantEats.com

When Christmas was approaching this past year we already knew it was going to be different since Henny wouldn’t be there. Rather than trying to recreate the past and have a crucial part absent, we decided to revamp it. Since none of us actually liked eating beef (we never told Henny this), we decided to go with a vegetarian menu with plenty of sides. Dessert was a Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe coming soon). But the one tradition we couldn’t omit was Henny’s Rainbow Cookies- it just wouldn’t be Christmas without them.

We emailed Henny’s girlfriend and after some searching through his old recipe collection, she sent us the recipe she thought was the one he used. It was a recipe from a 1999 edition of Gourmet magazine and I followed it to a T. The cookies came out exactly like Henny’s and I know he would be proud. I guess he really was there with us this year in spirit :)

Rainbow Cookies ~ ElephantEats.com

 Since I didn’t change a thing, you can find the recipe online here. I just have a few helpful notes:

  1. Don’t worry about having the right size pans. These cookies don’t spread at all so you can just line with parchment and draw on the parchment so you know where to spread the batter to.
  2. Use a small offset spatula to spread. It will be really hard to spread it since it’s so thin but just do the best you can. 
  3. Wait to trim the cookies until after you’ve assembled the layers with the jam and they’ve set in the refrigerator. I didn’t do this and the layers shifted so I ended up having to trim then twice. Not a big deal but just figured I’d mention it.
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