Chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream, chocolate ganache… Movita style

April 30, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in cake, Chocolate Tags: birthday cake, chocolate buttercream frosting, chocolate cake, chocolate ganache 38 Comments

First thing… can you please go vote for me at Movita’s place! Then I’ll explain…

And remember this isn’t about the best cake- it’s a popularity contest people. So just vote for me ok!!! Although, there are some pretty slick jobbies over there. But trust me, if you could sink your teeth into this chocolate cake, I guarantee it would rock your world.

I ran across movitabeaucoup this winter and must say, I was moved by her wit, charm and clever contests. I’m not usually one to participate in this sort of thing, a contest, but this time I decided I’d give it a go. Clueless where to start, I began trying to decide fruity or chocolaty. I thought and thought about what to bake. Despite the flood of ideas, just one, and only one, failed to surface and I procrastinated a bit. Then sweet Movita posted a chocolate cake she made for her mother’s birthday. So call me unoriginal or brilliant but I decided if this was the cake she baked for her mother… someone should bake it for her. And we were all very happy with that decision, despite another 3# on the scale! It was incredible. The first words out of my almost 14yr old daughter, Chloe, was foodgasm. I was proud and scared in the same moment.

I had so much fun making it. I had a new box of Valrhona chocolate baking powder and a new bottle of vanilla… which I do not take for granted anymore as it isn’t easy to come by in Hamburg. We see a lot of recipes calling for a packet of vanilla sugar.

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Glazed Carrots, Apples and Horseradish

April 26, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in dinner, Vegetables Tags: apples, carrots, horseradish, root vegetables 19 Comments

One of my favorite magazines in Germany besides my monthly Food and Travel is Landlust. Beautiful photographs from the countryside, fresh recipes and for me a chance to read German. Like giving a boy girly mags to learn how to read… oh that’s bad isn’t. Sexist too? Sorry. I will say though, my German exels in reading and translating recipes.

This month’s issue displayed gorgeous young vegetables, cooked simply, with interesting combinations and ingredients. I’m pleased it was the carrots with horseradish that stood out above the others. Eaten last night with a simple grilled steak and steamed broccoli, these carrots gave our meal a little umph! Sweet and salty with a little bite.

Carrots, apples & horseradish {Print Recipe}

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Atlanta Botanical Gardens… orchids

April 24, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Atlanta Tags: Atlanta, Botanical gardens, High museum, orchids 22 Comments

The first week of April and we spent an afternoon in shorts and flip flops walking around the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Now that we are in our coats and barely out of our winter boots again, it’s like a dream I look back on Waaaa…

Soon Hamburg, soon.

I loved the gardens and look forward to more time in them next trip. It was only our second day and we were still a bit tired. The gardens were also followed by a morning visiting the Picasso to Warhol exhibit at the High Museum. I loved this outdoor installation despite not being able to walk up to it and touch it.

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Sausage from Scratch, Buttermilk Biscuits & how I went from a size 4 to 8 in one day.

April 21, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Atlanta, breakfast, Brunch Tags: buttermilk biscuits, gravy, Sara Foster, sausage, Southern cooking 29 Comments

I wonder sometimes how other food bloggers are coming up with ideas of what they want to make. Is it lined out on a chalkboard? On the ‘plan your blog’ app? Or is it a day to day decision? I wonder sometimes what I might create and share next… for about 3 minutes… because frankly, I’m under the impression that there are not enough hours, days, months or years to complete all the thoughts I have about food. So really, it’s a matter of focus, organization and lots of real time little notebooks and computer stickies. How do you decide?

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Tarragon Chicken Salad with Cranberries and Hazelnuts & a side of Asparagus

April 17, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Fresh and healthy, Main: poultry, Salad Tags: asparagus, avocado, chicken, cranberries, hazelnuts, orange vinaigrette, radishes, tarragon 29 Comments

This tarragon chicken salad with cranberries and hazelnuts, exploding with flavor and texture, easily kept my mind off the cupcakes and yeasted cakes I’ve temporarily sworn off. And it will yours too. I didn’t search for any recipe this time because I didn’t want to know if someone’s already done it. Sometimes, with the access we have online to practically everything, it can take a bit of the thrill out of thinking you’ve discovered something for yourself. Now I know tarragon chicken salad is nothing new. And I know somebody out there has put cranberries or hazelnuts with chicken. Maybe they even used an orange vinaigrette to dress it. And yes, once I publish this post I might very well google it… but until then I’m enjoying having put this together myself.

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Blog love and no blackberry crisp … 7×7 Link, Liebster and Kreativ Blogger

April 13, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Awards and recognition Tags: 7x7 Link Award, Kreativ Blogger Award, Liebster Award, nominations 31 Comments

Spring is here and love is in the air. It’s been a real learning curve since 11/11/11 when I started writing and cooking in public… well if family and your five closest friends count as public. It has been at times frustrating, exciting, exhausting, and has provided an enormous amount of satisfaction, learning and new virtual friendships. I’ve also been inspired to sign up for a food writing and photography workshop in Somerset next month and could not be more excited about it.

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Rosenkuchen for Easter

April 6, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Baked Goods, Brunch, holiday Tags: apple, glaze, hazelnut, rosenkuchen, yeasted cake 36 Comments

Finally, the long promised and awaited Rosenkuchen. Ok. Maybe that is an exaggeration. This Rosenkuchen, a yeasted cake with hazelnut and apple filling, has quickly climbed the ranks of my cake list. We loved it. The neighbors loved it. Honestly, we would have enjoyed it more if it hadn’t been on the heels of the macarons. I’m glad to have made this before our trip to share it with you prior to the holidays. This would be a PERFECT Easter brunch item. Easily made the day before. I actually made the yeasted dough on Saturday and held it over in the fridge till Sunday. Not a problem. I just couldn’t bare the thought of finishing it the same night as those Macarons and I was losing my natural light. I finished it Sunday afternoon but after a dinner of take out Indian food, we barely touched it till Monday.

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Macaron bloopers and extra ganache

April 3, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Cookies and Bars Tags: ganache, macarons 18 Comments

So as the official macaron post was so long, I thought I’d save the first round, the one that made me practically cry but still tasted delectable, till later.

I’ll start by saying, for those who saw the original post I madly tried to get out Sunday night at 11.30pm, Hamburg time, after about 8 hours of work and a loony weekend, you are not crazy if you were curious about the spelling.. I did spell every mention of a macaron, including the title with 2 o’s as in the coconut macaroon that is not really my favorite cookie. I can’t even blame the spell check because I only discovered it, like today. I will divulge. I was trying to ride that crazy stat wave and get something else out for everybody to see. Let go my ego ahem eggo. Alas I could not even remember if the egg whites were folded into the dry ingredients or the dry ingredients were folded into the whites. And that was with the two cookbooks I mentioned. I kept reading it over and over and over, literally probably eight times. But my brains were scrambled.

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French Macarons… A cinnamon and ginger duet.

April 1, 2012 By Wendy Ellen Thomas in Cookies and Bars Tags: chocolate, cinnamon, ginger, macaroons, Nigella Lawson, Pierre Herme 48 Comments

PHEW… what an exciting weekend. Thursday night I was doodling around checking to see if my new post was getting any action and yes, I was up to 35..45.. yes 75 in one day. This garnished excitement in my new little blogging world. Then about 8pm I looked and I had 140 hits. Hmmm… then 250 and I thought bummer I’ve been hacked spammed infiltrated. Then I had the notion to check freshly pressed and saw a familiar picture on the front page. Holy shit. How did that get there, not to be self deprecating, which I also have a knack for. I am pleased with my blog and the learning curve. However, if I had thought THIS chicken and glass noodle post would be seen by thousands I might have at least included a printable recipe. Must have been those scallions. Despite being catapulted into 15 minutes of blogging fame, my internet was still going off at 9pm (teen in the house) not to come back on till 6am. I checked my iphone till about 11pm. I woke up about 5.30 barely able to contain myself. O offered to make tea and keep me company till I could log on. I wasn’t sure if I should play all cool like ‘yeah whatever’ freshly pressed… that’s nice. But I’m not really a cool person and I wear my heart on my sleeve, so I can’t lie. What a thrill this has been. I’m enjoying seeing so many new faces and sites and don’t mind the occasional real estate broker hotline or tennis shoe extravaganza that seem to slip through the spam cracks.

All that being said… back to work- or fun I should say. I’m loving responding to comments but wanted to get this out next. I had Rosenkuchen planned for this post but found out Friday night through Biscuits and Bobbins about a macaron contest over at traveling foodies. I love making macaroons. Could I pull it off in a day? Make them and write a post? It was worth a shot. Here’s the round-up of their March Macaron Madness. Great photos and a lot of info!

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