Cooking Channel Champ

So how did I manage to exhaust myself so thoroughly that I couldn't type?

Friday evening, I was supposed to go downtown with my friend and enjoy First Friday. My friend flaked and I was left on my own.  I had gotten a call from Sams on my way home from work telling me my sunglasses were ready, but I wasn't going to be able to pick them up.  I went to go get them.

They were awful! First the lenses were the wrong color - the clerk I ordered them decided that i was kidding when I told him I preferred gray. He thought I really meant brown. I didn't.

The new clerk also was horrified by how big and heavy the frames were! I had thought they looked good the week before and the other clerk told me they looked good so I went with that they looked good. They did not. The new clerk all but forced me to let her to pick a new set for me pick out a new set for myself. I get the new frames this weekend. Hopefully.

And then I went home and changed into something much cuter than I would have worn had I gone downtown with my friend, because reasons. I had a poem written for me by a man in a fox suit, I bought some nice art for my dining room and picked up a bitchin' new  to me dress. I was sad and I needed retail therapy. My evening turned out much better than it started.

Saturday I went to an art and garden show and did some more retail therapy. I wanted to support local artists! I bought for me and Alphagal. I helped the local art scene and got a new toy!

 And then I came home to cook.

I found what I wanted to make on one of my cooking shows but I couldn't easily find it online in print form. I had to look for a while but I finally tracked it down. I had never made Cornish Game Hens

It turns out they aren't hard to make, but they do get dried out really easy, hence the not pictured really tasty pork and lemon sausage stuffing, the "rice" is actually riced cauliflower and cheese sauce. I also made the gravy  the recipe called for: light ale and dijon mustard and honey. It was very good. The whole meal was easy and good. I will make it again.

Sunday I moved on to recipe number two. Chocolate Cake . This was significantly more involved then the chicken. I really wanted a sous chef, or more accurately, I wanted to be the sous chef. I am not enough of a baker for this. I was over matched but ready for the challenge. I grimly started my task, ready to fail.

Fake sugar, eggs, butter and 73 percent chocolate. Total. No flour, no oil.

  It wanted a spring form pan, but I don't have one of those. A regular pan worked well. I did butter and flour it thoroughly though.

Thank Gawd for my double boiler!  The chocolate bars had to be melted and the butter  added chunk by chunk.

 The eggs had to be separated,  thankfully, something I can manage. Then they had to prepared in two different ways. The yolks were mixed with half the sugar and stirred until "light and ribbon like", the whites then had to be "whipped into stiff peaks" and the rest of the sugar added. This was stressing for me!  the recipe wanted  me to  successfully produce meringue I  last  time I even  thought about meringue when I made it last in eighth grade home ec and I did not make it look right then either.

  Then the yolks and the chocolate had to be brought together, slowly as not to end up with scrambled eggs - Thank you cooking shows for teaching me how to do that! This was a tense few moments for me! When they were combined, it was time to add the whites.

It ended up with a lot more body than you would imagine.The picture makes it look kind of greasy and separated, but it really wasn't. It looked like normal cake batter

It bakes for 55 minutes.

I was not over matched by this! Take that Cooking Channel! It has the texture of cheese cake! It is very rich and dense and you can have a tiny slice and be completely satisfied.