Feliz Cumpleanos Iris! (AKA Dueling Mixers)

So Tara's moving into 1532 next Saturday. After living in her hobbit hole basement apartment for close to 15 years, her landlords are finally kicking her out to make way for a new upscale rental unit. So she's saying goodbye to Corcoran St. and her bourgeois Logan Circle neighborhood.

Welcome to Truxton 86 Circle Tebonce!

With this move, we now find 1532 with double kitchen appliances...and I couldn't be more pleased. I mean, when was the last time you saw two KitchenAid mixers in one kitchen?

Today is Iris's birthday. She's our mexican friend. So Tara brought over her trusty 1000 Mexican Recipes cookbook.

Tara's always prattling on about this cookbook.

She calls it the Bettina Cocina (Mexican Betty Crocker I think).

In a effort to win the affection of our favorite Mexi, we

picked two separate cakes and baked as we plotted against one another.

Tara chose Tres Leches (Three Milks Cake) and I chose Torta Borracha (Drunken Cake). Mine has a significant amount of Rum. I've battled before and have found that a little liquor usually greases the wheels in my favor. Tres Leches on the other hand is one of the most divine cakes I've ever eaten. But I also know it's pretty involved. We'll see if she can pull this off.

(Please note the dueling Corona and Mimosa in the photo. I pulled the Corona out as a prop and somehow while my back was turned it was opened)

The baking begins. I set the powdered sugar canister out in hopes she'd mistake it for flour again, but apparently she's on to that trick.

At some point Tara realized the Three Milks Sauce called for rum also.

Tara: Oh! Look at that. This calls for Rum too. I'm putting some Jack up in there.

Scott: It's Mexican cake. You can't use Jack Daniels.

Tara: The recipe calls for

Rum, Sherry or Cognac.

Scott: Jack is nobody's Cognac.

Tara: Tennessee is a lot closer to Mexico that France is. (insert stinkeye and a head wag)

I started to get concerned. My cake was also making me nervous. It made a very light batter and had cooked up

nicely but the drunken part called for rum simple syrup (Rum not cooked of course). It was a lot of liquid. I just kept spooning the boozey sugar water over the cake and it wasn't soaking in.

Crap! Is this working? I can't let Tara see me flustered. Damn her Tres Leches looks good.

This is when I faked a break and walked away for about 10

minutes.

Damn if all that syrup didn't soak into that cake. Completely gone. Worked perfectly.

At least I hope so. As Tara noted, baking's tough. You can't sample to know if it's gone well like you can with cooking. You just have to follow direction and hope for the best.

Tara's turned out nice too. Matt lended a hand and tried to make a fleur de lis out of strawberries. Odd maybe, but if you know Iris you know why.

!FELIZ CUMPLEANOS IRIS!

Hoppy Nu Yeaaaah!

2k10 is finally here. Out with the bad and crazy and in with the good and crazy. After an all day brunch with the Spinelli's yesterday, Scott and I decided that we need to get back on "plan". This means that we will actually watch what we eat more closely as opposed to our caution to the wind approach that seems to happen more often than not.

Speaking of crazy, we started out the day by going to the Really Ghetto Giant on Rhode Island Ave because they were giving out free bags to assist with the new bag tax. This turned out to be a futile trip. The parking lot was full on a Monday afternoon which made Scott apprehensive, we didn't even last 5 minutes in the store when we saw the long lines and there were no shopping carts available. I guess we could have gotten the "day laborers" from Home Depot to carry the groceries, but that might have made a bigger expense. So we went to his favorite Safeway, which was kind of low on the produce. What is it with low produce on Mondays? I digress.

After our arduous journeys to a grocery store with long lines and no carts and one with lacking produce; we were still challenged as to what to make. We repeated the Mao Pao Tofu (7 WW points, in case you were wondering) and Emeril's Mushroom Ragout (8 WW points with 1/2c pasta). Dinner is Shepard's Pot Pie, my bastardization of beef pot pie and Shepard's pie.

So here it is, my rendition of Sheperd's Pot Pie:

1 onion

5 Tbsp butter

1/2c Flour

1 pkg sliced mushrooms

8oz frozen peas & carrots (I added extra peas)

3c beef broth

1 lb ground beef

1 pkg of frozen Puff Pastry shells

Preheat oven to 400.

Brown ground beef and mushrooms, lay aside. Place pastry shells in oven and cook according to package directions. In a dutch oven, melt butter and add onions, cook until softened and add flour. Stir about a 2 minutes then add beef broth. Stir until thickened, about 5-7 minutes. Add beef and mushrooms. Stir in frozen veggies. Let simmer until veggies are melted, about 3 minutes. Place about a cup of ground beef mixture into individual ramekins and bake until bubbly. Once done, place a puff pastry on top of each pot pie and serve.

6 servings. (this is nobody's WW meal, so we didn't even bother to do points)