Saturday, October 2, 2010

Food and my Toddler: Banana Joy

I spent months and months waiting for this day! The day that my daughter would actually EAT a banana instead of fuzz with it. I tried different things that relatives and friends would recommend such as:  adding a bit of orange juice to it with sugar, banana with honey, mashed bananas, sliced banana to eat with a fork or as a fingerfood, removing the seeds of the banana. Nothing worked. There were times she would keep her hands to herself and not touch a single piece, other times she would pick up a piece and complained because it was too sticky on her fingers. Other times she didn't like to use the fork because the banana would fall off... the list could go on and on.

So one day (more like a month and a half ago) she saw me eating a banana from the peel. Of course she likes to try/eat everything that Mommy has so she asked for a bite of the banana. I was a bit hesitant about it, because I was so sure she was going to spit it out.  To my surprise, she didn't. She smiled and asked for more.

As I am writing this entry, she is eating a banana. It makes me so happy that she likes it :-)









Friday, October 1, 2010

He Cooks, I Eat: Perfect Strawberry and Chocolate Mousse Chocolate Cake







The following is a chocolate cake that my Hubby made for me since I love chocolate quite a lot! 

Steps: 

1.     He used a chocolate cake mix and baked it according to the instructions. 
2.     Then he cut it into layers (I loved this part) and added chocolate mousse. 
3.   Prepare the ganache - my Hubby knows how to make this by heart now since it also works GREAT on brownies or top cupcakes instead of using icing.
Here is a good recipe for it from the Food Network
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/saras-secrets/master-ganache-recipe/index.html
Basically do a double-boiler for the Ganache. Add the chocolate to the second bowl and add heavy whipping cream as you go.
It makes the chocolate so perfectly creamy! 
4.     Clean, cut/slice strawberries to decorate the cake. 
5.     Do a white chocolate ganache to drizzle the cake. 
6.     Enjoy!