Happy Thursday and Happy Birthday to me!
It’s my birthday! I’ve been lucky to spend the day with my kiddo who’s on summer break already. This afternoon we baked a birthday cake and gathered wild nasturtium flowers in our yard for decoration. I appointed Josie to head Cake Decorator and I think she’s done a fabulous job. (I guess all those hours of watching The Great British Baking Show are paying off!)
I kicked off my birthday with a concert at the Hollywood Bowl last night. Sorin and I stayed out long past our weekday bedtime but it was worth it. Live music is always worth it, something I have to remind myself of every time we consider going to a show. The older I get, the easier it is to stay in my house and stick with the same old routine instead of exerting a little bit of motivation and energy to do something fun.
Last night, Sorin suggested that we need to start having more fun and I think he’s right. I’m celebrating an end-of-a-decade birthday today so it feels like a good time to refocus on what I want to do with my “one wild and precious life.”
It’s easy to get bogged down with mid-life worries and responsibilities. Before you know it, life is noticeably less fun. The years are flying by faster and faster and I’m definitely not feeling any younger, so the time to have fun is now, instead of waiting for a mythical time in the future when life will be easier and less busy.
Speaking of fun… This Week’s Recipe!
Chocolate Fun Cake
I don’t usually post dessert recipes, but today felt like a good day to share the very simple chocolate cake I made for my birthday, Chocolate Fun Cake.
This was my go-to cake when my kids were little because:
It’s easy
You can make it in one bowl
It’s egg free (lick as much raw batter off the spoon as you like without worrying about raw eggs!)
In recent years I’d forgotten about this recipe until a few weeks ago when my kids wanted to make a cake on their own. We had all of the basic ingredients for Chocolate Fun Cake in our pantry and they were able to follow the simple instructions and bake this very chocolatey cake without my help.
THE RECIPE: Chocolate Fun Cake
(from Chef Nathaniel Meads in a 2012 Bon Appetit magazine)
We often skip frosting and serve this cake with a big dollop of whipped cream, but for my birthday I used my favorite not-so-sweet whipped frosting from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Ingredients
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups water
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
In large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Add oil, vanilla and water. Whisk until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into either an 8x8 pan coated with non-stick spray or a lined 12-cup cupcake pan.
Bake at 350F until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center, about 35 minutes for cake and 18 minutes for cupcakes. Let cool completely in pan set on wire rack.
5 Dinners in Real Life
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? I hope that my week of real life dinners will provide a few helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family.
I was under the weather the last week, dragging myself through the daily grind. One way that I made life easier for myself was by keeping dinner really minimal. So, here’s what my crew ate last week:
Monday: There was already chicken thighs and cauliflower in the fridge, so that’s what I made. I simply seasoned both with olive oil, salt and pepper and put both on sheet pans (I chopped the cauliflower up into small florets first).
Tuesday and Wednesday: I made it to the grocery store in the morning and stocked up on food that we could eat for dinner without actually cooking, like hummus, pita bread, crackers, feta, olives, salad greens, carrots and cucumbers, frozen rice, frozen mac ‘n cheese and lots of fruit.
On both Tuesday and Wednesday night everyone just looked in the fridge and made their own dinner plate. My kids thought this was fantastic and loved assembling their own dinner with cold items from the fridge or food that was easily microwaveable. This was a good reminder that sometimes I put the burden of cooking dinner on myself when actually my family doesn’t have any expectation that I’m going to cook a balanced three course meal every night.
Thursday: I was starting to feel better and decided to bake focaccia bread, which is something that food bloggers like myself do even if it sounds ridiculous! Luckily, baking focaccia is easier than it sounds. I already had all of the ingredients and was inspired by a recipe in the cookbook Veg Forward by Susan Spungen.
I wrapped the warm loaf of focaccia in a kitchen towel and took it with us to swim team practice that evening. While Ophelia swam, Josie and I laid on a blanket in the grass and ate focaccia bread and cherries for dinner.
Friday: In the morning I put dried black beans in the slow cooker with onion, garlic, salt and 6 cups of water. The beans simmered all day long and by 6pm we had a gigantic pot of black bean soup to be enjoyed with grated cheese, sour cream, green onions and tortilla chips.
This sounds wonderful, but my family was a little bit “meh” about a main course that was 95% black beans. I had a lot of leftover black bean soup! By the next day the bean soup had thickened, so I froze a few small portions that I can take out and use as filler for taco nights.
Cookbooks
The cookbook that inspired my focaccia baking was Veg Forward, by Susan Spungen.
(I also found this step-by-step video helpful when making focaccia).
Veg Forward is filled with beautiful recipes for salads and main courses that make vegetables the star. The recipes are a little bit too beautiful for what my kids want to eat and what I can realistically make on a busy weeknight, which was one reason that the recipe I actually ended up making was for bread, not vegetables. However, this would be an inspiring cookbook for anyone who gets a CSA box each week and has vegetables they don’t know how to prepare.
That’s it for this week! I’m off to enjoy a glass of wine on my back patio and eat take-out dinner from a favorite restaurant with my family. Just look at me, having more fun already!
xo
Jenny
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