How To Get Rid of Leftover Cake

How To Get Rid of Leftover Cake

What? You’ve never had that problem?

Come on, there has to be at least one instance in all your life when you wanted some dessert but couldn’t bear the thought of another bite of that Alaskan-sized sheet-cake.

Ok, well that’s the situation I found myself in this week.

We had another graduation party for Aaron tonight, and I was on deck to bring the dessert. We had plenty of sheet cake left from parties earlier in the week. I couldn’t bear to eat another bite of cake, but it just seemed too wasteful to throw it all away.

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I sliced up a couple pounds of strawberries that needed to be eaten up anyways. Instead of putting sugar on them, I doused them liberally with Godiva liqueur (mom calls this “medicine,” we both make sure to have a bottle handy in case of emergencies).

While I let the strawberries soak in their chocolate hooch, I whipped up a pint of whipping cream with yet a little more Godiva Liqueur – again no sugar, it wasn’t necessary.

Quantities? I have no idea. Just added till I felt like it might be enough.

Then I took a bowl and made a deep layer of leftover cake, topped it with a layer of drunk strawberries and then topped that with a layer of drunk whipped cream and repeated until everything was gone.

Oh my goodness, I think I’ve got a buzz. Not sure if its a sugar buzz or from all the booze, but I think I’ll wait a while before dribing home.

So next time I have leftover Costco cake from any kind of event, I know what I’m going to do with it. But next time I think I’ll remove a lot of the frosting, that just got in the way.
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Sonrisa Modern Mex, Seattle

Sonrisa Modern Mex, Seattle

UPDATE: unfortunately, Sonrisa Modern Mex has closed.

Sonrisa Modern Mex is a relatively new addition to the University Village. The outdoor dining area is complimented by a sitting area with oversized chairs and an outdoor fireplace. We found the flickering of the interior fireplaces rather inviting as we were walking along outside in the cold. Inside the restaurant, we were immediately taken in by the lighting throughout the restaurant, and the tiling on the bar. The place looks lovely. The service was wonderful as well.Sonrisa Modern Mex

The food – the food aspires to mediocre. The Guacamole was wonderful, full of huge chunks of avacado and served with plantain chips along with the usual corn chips. The plantains were a nice addition to the chips, but they weren’t really anything special and I certainly wouldn’t want a whole order of them alone. The corn chips were fresh, but much to greasy.

guacamole | CoffeeJitters.Net

Aaron ordered the Baked Chile Relleno (Roasted poblano pepper stuffed with ancho rubbed chicken, apricots, golden raisins, pepper jack cheese, cilantro and onions. With salsa verde and red enchilada sauce and achiote rice). It was underdone,the cheese hadn’t even begun to melt and the chile was still tough. But the flavors were nice so it wasn’t too bad.

chile relleno | CoffeeJitters.Net

I had the Picante Primavera (Penne pasta sauteed with roasted shallots, roasted garlic, zucchini, asparagus and spicy salsa fresca. Finished with grated cotija cheese). This struck me as intriguing so I just had to try it. Each of the ingredients was wonderful on its own. The garlic was mellow the asparagus had a wonderful flavor and texture. But I found myself picking though the dish for specific items, a bite of asparagus, a bite of zucchini, several bites of garlic; each one delicious yet together they just didn’t work.Sonrisa Modern Mex - Menu

The desert menu was interesting; a couple items included habanero peppers in the description. I wasn’t feeling that brave, so we opted for the flan trio. The flan trio is described as being a chocolate, vanilla and berry brulee. What arrived was a dish with six compartments. Three ramekins each with a custard, one berry, one vanilla (the only brulee), and one chocolate. The remaining three compartments had whipped cream, one strawberry flavored with a strawberry on top, a tiny speck of plain vanilla, and chocolate flavored whipped cream with chocolate chips. I must admit, this is precisely what the menu said. But whipped cream with chocolate chips didn’t work for me. None of the whipped creams were very good or even interesting. The creme brulee was good. The strawberry “brulee” was bland and over sweet and the chocolate “brulee” (neither of these two had been touched with a flame) was terribly thick, like fudge. I’m not one to leave dessert on my plate, especially where there is chocolate involved, but I couldn’t eat this. I didn’t even bother to ask for a box to take it home.

So would I recommend this place? That’s an interesting question. Certainly not for dinner. However the bar is nice, the service is great, they have an extensive inventory of tequila and a talented bar tender. The guacamole is great. The happy hour menu boasts $5 appetizers, $4 house margaritas, and $3 draft beers. I say, if you want to meet friends for margaritas at happy hour, this might be just the spot.

Sonrisa Modern Mex
2614 NE 46th Street
University Village
Seattle, WA 98105

http://www.sonrisamodernmex.com/

206-524-2242

Sonrisa Modern Mex on Urbanspoon

Cooking with Leftovers: Curried Chicken and Lentil Soup

What does a starving student cook when the pantry’s paltry offerings are little more than leftover chicken, lentils, chicken stock and some leftover vegetables? This starving student made curried chicken and lentil soup.

I simmered the lentils in the chicken stock, chopped and added the chicken, seasoned with curry and cinnamon (the secret ingredient and key to this soup), and then added the veggies shortly before serving. The entire dish took about 20 minutes to complete. A quick and easy dinner that was absolutely delicious.

How To Get Rid of Leftover Cake

Dahlia Lounge

This afternoon when I was visiting Grandma, I told her Aaron and I were planning to go to the Dahlia Lounge for the first time. She said, “have the pie.” When Grandma tells you to try someone else’s pie, take notice. She knows pie.

So we’re not rich and I’m trying to lose weight – yet our favorite thing in the whole wide world is to eat really good food at nice restaurants. We’ve found that the best way to protect my waistline and his wallet is to share a starter and entree rather than each of us getting our own. This doesn’t always work well for us when it comes to service. Sometimes the server will just bring us a spare plate. Sometimes this results in distainful looks from the wait staff. But at Dahlia Lounge we were treated like rockstars.

Our Tuscan grilled bread salad with pesto, olives, mozzarella and spicy coppacola was artfully presented on two separate, smaller plates – with a smile. This salad was amazing. Very earthy with warm smoky tones – I feel like I’m describing a wine – yet the salad was good enough to warrant such pithiness.

Also artfully presented on two smaller platters was our shared entree. The five spice Peking duck was delicious: perfect herby crust, juicy inside, served with a super hot teriyaki and plum jam. Yummy.

And by the way, Grandma was right. The coconut cream pie was heavenly, topped off with a towering mound of toasted coconut and white chocolate shavings.bird-2

The meal was not cheap, even sharing the dishes. One soda, one scotch, one salad, one entree and one desert came out well over sixty dollars. But definitely worth it.

Come if you can, save up if you need to.

Save room for pie.

Dahlia Lounge on Urbanspoon

 

Bamiyan Afghani Restaurant

After the waterfall we had to decide what to do for dinner. I would have loved to try the Salish Lodge; we stopped and checked out the menu, but frankly I was not inspired. When plates start at $23, the description on the menu should make my mouth water. We decided to head towards Issaquah instead.

Gillman village is a cute little shopping center in Issaquah comprised of a grouping of cottages on a boardwalk. The shops are cutesy and charming, ranging from toy stores, to yarn shops to kitchen gadgets – there is also an Amish furniture store that made me want to refurnish the whole house.

Gillman village also has an assortment a restaurants, but the only one we have ever tried is Bamiyan Afghani Restaurant, because how could you pass that up?

Bamiyan was originally just an Afghan restaurant, but we noticed that they’ve added more traditional Persian dishes as well (Persian food and Afghan food are very similar). We started with the Ausht, which was an amazing creamy and savory soup – very rich. Then Mr. H had the koobideh which is one of our all time favorite dishes. Koobideh is a savory ground beef kebab, the kind of savory where it’s difficult to stop eating even when you’re completely stuffed. I had the fesenjan. Fesenjan is one of those dishes that lives on a continuum, in this case between sweet and tart. The placement on that continuum depends largely on family recipe and geographic origin of that recipe. I asked the server how tart the fesenjan was and she claimed it was not too tart. Fesenjan is a dish of stewed chicken in a walnut and pomegranate gravy. The tartness of the dish depends on the amount of pomegranate juice used. It turned out a little more tart than I expected, but I like it really quite sweet. Nonetheless it was very good.

For desert, Mr. H had the Firni (custard with cardamom and pistachios). I went with the Bastani which is ice cream made with rosewater and pistachios (we served this at our wedding with the cake). To top it all off I got to watch Mr. H rap with the staff in Farsi which always turns me on.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, I love this place.

Bamiyan Afghani Restaurant on Urbanspoon