Ghiradelli Grand Fudge Cake

I suggest puree-ing raspberries and spreading them between the layers. Chocolate and raspberries…yum!

Carrot Cake

Cream Cheese Lemon Zest Frosting

(It’s actually two recipes, so click both links)

Anyway, I hope it turns out well. Does anyone have a birthday coming up?

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

It’s quick, easy, suitable for picky eaters and absolutely DELICIOUS!!! (Not to mention it has so few ingrediants.)

This one was inspired by this year’s Language arts teacher. She had me write a letter to my self about goals and school and everything, but I ended up loving the exercise and pouring my soul into it. I loved it and will post my letter if you want to read it. Stating your goals, your ambitions, what you feel is like a blog post or a journal entry, but I think the fun in it is re-reading it after a long time to see how things have changed, how much you’ve grown. It’s therapeutic and I left the experience feeling relaxed if emotionally vulnerable, the way I always do when I spread my heart out in words. I suggest writing about your fears and ambitions and things you love. To write them down is to make them more tangible, making the fears easier to face, the ambitions easier to reach, the loves easier to hold on to.

11. Read a book without even looking at the title.

This may sound crazy, but sometimes favorite things are born out of taking a chance. Books are so hard to judge by whats on the outside, so don’t let that bias you and just jump in.

12.Make a spur-of-the-moment dessert.

Use what you have in the house, find an easy recipe and get cooking! Being spontaneous is fun and invigorating and all this costs you is time. Plus dessert is fabulous and delicious! Baking is relaxing, and has great end results. So, why are you still reading this? I’m expecting cookies to be in progress!

For now, let them eat …cookies!

So often cleaning house is in preparation for something: a visitor, an event. But cleaning is kind of therapeutic if you do it to please nobody but yourself. It doesn’t have to be a chore. After you’re done and everything is sparkling with cleanliness, then you can sit down on your couch and savor it. You can think, “I did this. I made order of chaos. I made this place beautiful.” Even if it’s just fleeting and the next second, your seven year old decides to trash your kitchen, having a clean house by your own hand shows that you have power over something, the ability to pull something neat out of  a disaster.

8. Splurge on something you want

We all do it. We all desire something that, rationally, we shouldn’t. We have to pay the bills, feed the children, buy gas for the car. And even though I have no bills to pay, children to feed, or cars to gas because I’m 13, I still have things to save up for. Such as Blogher ’10. I have a lot more to save up, so, no, I can’t go buy that book the first day it’s out in hardcover. But sometimes, it’s all right to be a little selfish, to do something for you and only you. Responsibility can sometimes be unpleasant, but it will make the moments when it doesn’t govern your life all the sweeter.

9. Have a popcorn fight

The eternal foe of the vacuum. The dreaded enemy of carpets everywhere. The terrifying, horrifying, mess-creating…POPCORN FIGHT!!! Yes I know we are all quaking in our seats, wondering how I could suggest such a hideous crime. Heres my reason: It’s fun. Lots of fun. And harmless. A night full of laughter is worth clean up in the morning. Just let go of the instinct to keep the house perfect, and build a cherished memory with your friends, family, coworkers, whoever.

More things to do next time, but for now: let them eat (and throw) popcorn!

My first dish was simple enough: Oatmeal Banana Bread. But somehow, as I always do, I managed to use EVERY SPACE in our large kitchen. Including the top of the chest freezer. Denise came in and outlines a small portion of the kitchen saying that when I had my first apartment I would only have that much counter space. I mulled over it before, I replied that I would cook in my bedroom. My mom chimed in that she had done that before, and I can’t say I’m surprised.

Next, Liz made brownies. I should have stayed out of her way, but when it comes to me baking, no one is safe. No one. So I nosed around in her brownies (not literally) and they turned out fine. But it was the finding the ingrediants for the next dish that led to disaster. As I dug around in our cuboard, looking for baking soda, I up ended a bag of sushi rice. It Poured on every surface, spanning the entire kitchen. Denise thought, like me, that it was disasterous. My mother, for some reason, supposedly found it “cute”. Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. Maybe we reminded her of herself? Anyway. Liz and I cleaned up the rice in about 40 minutes, and afterwards I twiched everytime anyone said “grain” or “rice”. So of course they made a game of it.

But the day was not yet over, for I, Supreme Lord of Klutziness, had yet to make one last dish. The dreaded…terrifying…horrific…cinnamon-sugary… SNICKERDOODLES!!!! Feel free to scream. Oddly enough, nothing terribly wrong happened. I made the simple dough, rolled it into balls, rolled the balls in cinnamon sugar, and baked them to sugary perfection. Probably nothing horror movie-like happened because Liz helped. However potent my bad luck is, her good luck is more so.

Thank god for little sisters. Specifically, mine.

They appealed to every sense that they could: sight, smell, taste, feel. Even the sounds of the restaurant seemed to encourage and inspire delight: the low murmur of the fellow guests voices, the quiet resonating clink of wine glasses gently falling against each other. The perfectly trained waitstaff were polite, well timed, helpful, and they oozed professionalism. I practically feel like I am defiling the memory of the place by blogging about it.

As for the sense of smell, they left nothing to it’s own devices. When we had a course involving poached steak, to make up for the lack of the grilled flavor, they poured water on dry ice that caused the mist that spilled out onto our table to smell like grilled steak. Furthermore, on another course that seeked to inspire thoughts of a garden, they placed a curling, if lovely mass of tomato vines and flowers upon out table.

The plating was beautiful, careful, precise…much like the food itself. Every positioning was carefully thought out, nothing unintentional.

What blows guests away is, obviously, the food. All my preconceptions were shattered, like glass yielding to a sledgehammer. From the very first bite, I knew that I would trust this chef to feed me whatever he liked. Every texture, every flavor, even the simplest or most seemingly insignificant things drew meaning, contributing themselves, delicious alone, mind-blowing together. It seems that Alinea’s main purpose was to break down every wall that you’ve built, showing you that if you would just relinquish your trust to them, they would guide you to the Oz of the food world. I have always been one of those people who was afraid to fall over backwards even with someone standing right behind me because I’m afraid that they won’t catch me. With this experience, I fell over backwards, but not only was I caught, but I was catapulted into a new realm. There’s no turning back now.

I will never question my mom’s retro recipes after my surreal, dream-like night at Alinea. I will always cradle the memory of that night close to my heart, peeking at its vibrant beauty like a butterfly trapped in my hands, before tucking it into the pack rat corner of my heart, a messy place reserved for things that I love.

I find that Alinea is not just a reflection of truly amazing food, but also of what makes us each a better person. Care for whats important to you. Paying attention to the smallest things. Dedication and hard work. Love, for what you do, and what it does for others. Trust, and the act of inspiring it. Food is not just a means to an end. As my mom says, it’s a love song. What you cook and why you cook it is a form of expression, one that is deep set in our consciousness, but always present. Cooking is an art form. A dance that may be primitive or modern, reminiscent of a sense of family, or honoring the beauty of human innovation. As I was at Alinea, I considered it’s traits and its similarity to the traits of the person who brought me there.

My dad works hard for our family, and goes through life with precision and yet an open mind. He wears his heart on his sleeve and inspires, as well as gives, love and trust, showing all of this with no fear or hesitation. People take him as he is, because he is honest about every aspect of his life and pours his soul into everything he does. He shows brilliance and dedication. He inspires normally contrasting things (like me and my sister) to work together.

His influence shapes things, and every life that he touches seems to brighten a little for his involvement. I can but hope that when I grow to the age when Karl does not beg me not to visit his site, I can reflect a fraction of my fathers traits.

The reason I wrote this is because everyone is going to have regrets in life. And not all of us are going to turn into vampires and thus live in tortured humanity forever, though that does sound fun. In a few installments, I’m going to put out a few things that I hope will prevent you from ending up writing auto-biographies that make me cry and are all about your regrets. In other words, when it comes to real life, fairy cake stories are good, like a beautiful gem in the horrific ocean that is the modern world. An ocean filled with poverty, cruelty, loss, greed, and so many unhappy endings. So many things will feed this ocean, anything that causes rage or stress or grief, from the queenofspain being ill to the loss of a child to a pregnant teenager whose family is too poor to afford to get her an abortion. A lot of things are out of our control, but the beautiful moments will sparkle, casting a ray of light through the darkness.

Though I can’t keep you from the things that will hurt in life, I hope that some of the 101 things that I am going to list will help you to build ties to your friends, family, community, and yourself.

I hope I can help you build and embrace that gem of hope.

To do list:

1. Dance in a grocery store

My mom does this. I used to be embarrassed and try to make her stop, but then I realized something: it’s fun! So now, whenever my mom and I are in a CVS or the Jewel-osco, and we hear a good song, we just dance, even though I look like a cockroach in its death throes when I do. People stare, but who cares? Letting go of your inhibitions and expressing yourself is a natural, healthy, beautiful thing to do. It sometimes takes an excellent mom to show you that when a person puts their soul into something, it shines.

2. Talk to the girl who everyone ignores

In the book in the Gifted series Out of Sight, Out of mind by Marilyn Kaye, a girl becomes invisible when she feels invisible. She’s ignored, or at best, made fun of. In New Moon by Stephanie Meyer, Bella has a recurring nightmare about being trapped in a void. In an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a girl becomes invisible because she is so plain that nobody notices her. These were all fictional cases, and though people might not literally become invisible, everyone deserves to be noticed. Bella is right to fear alienation. Sometimes, being brave enough to talk to the new kid, or the shy kid, or the kid with no friends, or the really weird kid will earn you a new best friend. Fate smiles kindly upon the brave.

3. Bake a cake with someone close to you.

It might be your husband (yes, I know, Denise. Patriarchy. Right.), your sister, your mom, your friend, anyone. Working together to build something, especially something caloric and delicious is fun. Making something successfully has a thrill of its own, but sharing is a true joy. I know it sounds corny, but some of the funniest, loveliest, most endearing moments are born in the kitchen. Not to mention the fact that everyone loves baked goods.

I will continue the list, but for now, “let them eat cake”.

Coffee Chocolate Layer Cake with Mocha Marscapone Frosting

Enjoy!