cooking ala mel

healthy recipes and the occasional craft

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Cauliflower "Bread"sticks

So, remember that tomato basil cheddar soup I posted?  Remember how I said I’d shortly be sharing the cauliflower “bread”sticks that I served alongside said soup?  Um.. yeah.. my birthday was a bit more exciting, so I had to post those goodies first.  Now that I’m back in Buffalo (and buried beneath notes.. as usual), I can finally share these.

Firstly, if you go into this thinking they’ll taste like bread.. they won’t.  The cheesy, herby flavors are there, as is the crispness of breadsticks, but they are by no means fluffy like bread.  Honestly, I didn’t miss it a bit – these are good.  Really good.  And you don’t have to feel guilty about eating a good many of them.  With that tomato soup, they were perfect for dunking.  They’d be lovely with some marinara, too, if you’d rather have them as an appetizer on a pizza night.
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Chocolate Hazelnut Filled Chocolate Layer Cake

So, yesterday (and today) was (is) my birthday.  Gotta love being a Leap Year baby! 😉  Immediately following my only class of the day – compounding lab – I drove 3 1/2 hours to spend my birthday with my family in Pittsburgh.  My mom is a bit under the weather, so we had a nice night in just relaxing and spending time together.  Of course, as soon as I got home, I got to work on assembling my birthday cake.  I had baked the cake layers earlier in the week and froze them so that they’d be all set for when I got home – defrosted but still cold – so I just had to make the filling and frosting to get it all assembled.

Because I’m a huge fan of chocolate, I decided on a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, but I wanted the filling to be a bit different.  I ended up going with a chocolate hazelnut filling using homemade hazelnut butter just whipped in the chocolate frosting I used for the outside.  This cake is so, so rich, but so perfect for a birthday.  It’s definitely not the healthiest of cakes, being pretty full of sugar, but I made slight adaptations to make it a little bit better.  It’s definitely still an indulgence, but I wouldn’t have it any other way for my birthday.

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*Almost Raw* Samoa Bars

This week is my birthday week.  I call it my birthday week because, well, I was born on a leap year – meaning I don’t have a birthday this year – and no one really quite knows when to celebrate my birthday.  I like to celebrate on the 28th, since it’s still in February, but I obviously don’t mind celebrating on the 1st of March, either.  Who would pass up more than one birthday celebration?!  This year will be particularly interesting because it’s also my 21st birthday.  Um, which day am I allowed to purchase alcohol?  Midnight on the 1st – right in between the 28th and 1st?  On the 28th?  What would make this way easier if my driver’s license had the “Under 21 until such and such date” like the PA licenses do.  But since I got my license in NY, they’re not quite as helpful.  Usually it would expire on my 21st birthday, but since I didn’t get my license till later, it doesn’t expire until 2015.  So.. we’ll see!

Since it’s my birthday week, it gives me an excuse to bake treats that I normally wouldn’t be able to justify finding the time for. Last year I got my nephew some thoughtful edibles from the The Manly Man Company and he really liked them, I’m hoping he gets me something edible too!  Like cake.  And homemade samoas!  Once I decided to make homemade samoas, I decided I’d make them healthier.  So I decided on a raw “shortbread” base and a date sweetened “caramel.”  Now, as you can tell from the pictures, these were cookies shaped just like samoas, but I’m posting a recipe for bars.  Why?  Um.. the amount of time and frustration put into cutting these delicate, raw cookies into rings was a little ridiculous.  I mean, it can be done, if you’re so inclined in putting in the effort, but honestly, making bars would be waaay easier.  The taste is great, so I still recommend making them.  Definitely in bars, though.