female

= Enjoy your meal.

(I did have to google the meaning)

Thanks to my mama and http://allrecipes.com (which may be my most favorite website of all time), lately, I have been able to experiment and make a few fun recipes. It's really been making me feel like my gender, female. Sure I know guys can cook/bake, but, wouldn't you find it a little weird if you were to walk in on them drying fruit leather? Or dying some fondent a really pretty pink? I do enjoy being a girl.

First, my brother Jay's birthday. Kodos to my mama, she taught me the yummiest recipe for
Chocolate Mousse Cake.

1 lb semi sweet chocolate
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
2 c. whipping cream
6 Tbs powdered sugar
4 egg whites
2 c. whipping cream

Crust:
2 c. crushed chocolate grahm crackers (put them in a ziplock bag and crush finely with rolling pin) I happened to use cinnamon crackers because 12:00 am on a saturday night at walmart and no chocolate crackers to be found, I really didn't care, and the cinnamon crust was perf!
7 Tbs melted butter
- mix well and press on bottom and half way up the sides of 10" spring form pan - chill

Filling:
Soften chocolate and cool to luke warm. Add yolks and mix well (hint, I used egg yolks right from the fridge and it cooled down the chocolate a little too fast, maybe let them sit for 20 minutes to make them room temp). Add whole eggs and mix well (I use beater). Whip 2 c. cream with powdered sugar. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold cream and egg whites and mix with chocolate mixture. Pour into crust and chill for 6 hours. Beat cream and add some sugar to taste. Spread all but 1/2 c. over top. Pipe remaining cream into rosettes on pie. Sprinkle w/ grated chocolate.

Not as pretty as my Mama's but it was fun to make! Well thanks, Jaybay.


My next idea was to make some fruit leather. I used to love getting fruit leather from Store House Market when I was younger, you would have to run into the ice cold freezer room that had all the produce, and hurry to pick your flavor of fruit leather. Oh Store House I sort of miss you.

Apricot Fruit Leather

8 Cups Pureed Apricots
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice
1 Cup Sugar (of course) I've used Stevia too

Pam a fruit leather dryer sheet, turn on dehydrator, and dry for how ever long your instruction manuel tells you. Or, you can do what I did and leave it on for 19 hours on low and it turned out perfect! I don't know how I did it.



Finished.

Last but definitely not least, my mom suggested that she teach me how to make spaghetti sauce! Now if that doesn't make you feel like a wife or a mom, I don't know what does. It was so much fun to spend time with her and learn how to do something that is productive! I don't have the recipe, I'll put it on here later. We slaved away for about 3 hours (cooking time included), we laughed, we cried (numerous times from onions) and even took a nap while the sauce was cooking. We put sweat and tears into our sauce, no blood. I can't wait to grow my own tomatoes next year and make this myself.


Fun!

I was thinking how lucky I am to have a man that eats whatever I make, and a lot of it, even left overs! It keeps my confidence for whatever it is that I conjure up.