Day 9- Try a New Food (SUSHI)

It’s true.  I was a sushi virgin until today, day 9 of my 30 by 30 challenge.  I knew this task was what I had planned for the day, but all day I kept thinking “I don’t wanna do this! I don’t wanna do this!”  I’m really just not a fan of seafood.  It grosses me out thinking about eating animals that were slimy and swimming in the oceans or lakes.  The same oceans and lakes that people pee in, and are also the recipients of tons of pollution of all kinds.  I’m not about to get on an environmentalist soap box, or get into my former/sometimes-back-again vegetarian ways, but seafood just isn’t my thing.

I was going out with a group of friends that night, and the lovely birthday girl chose Twisted- a sushi restaurant in Medina that I had never been to before! It didn’t take long to find something that looked good to me- it was a “crab Rangoon” roll, and it included a few of my faves: avocado, cream cheese, rice…. oh and it was deep fried! ;)  

The only thing still freakin’ me out was the crab.  Eww.  BUT I did it.  Put on my big girl panties and ate one!  It was really good!  Still hard to swallow (if I’m being honest) but I’m pretty sure it was just a psychological thing.  I heard Sebastian in my mind singing “under da sea we off da hook!”… So it was kind of a one-and-done thing.  YES, I liked it, but NO, I will not be going back for more!

  

But wouldn’t you know, I got showed up!  My sweet little J was awake when I got home, and- this brave little girl who took a taste of perogies earlier that evening even though she swore she didn’t like them, and then ended up eating two- she wanted to try my leftover sushi too!  I told her everything that was in it and she said “hmm.. sounds good!” She took a bite and loved it!  She’s a BIG fan of rice so I think that helped.  She even gave it a “thumbs up!” 

 

I’m so proud of her for being so fearless when she tries new things!  If you think about it, 3 year olds are trying new things all the time: new foods, games, puzzles, activities at school, playing with new friends, etc.  And my 17 month old is CONSTANTLY exposed to new things- first of all because he’s a baby, and second of all because even the things that aren’t new to him, he may not remember!  I feel like I should just give them a little more credit when it comes to not wanting to try my broccoli because it looks different that night (okay so I have a tendency to over-cook broccoli and then the kids are like “why is it mushy?!”)…  They still need to eat healthy food (or whatever else I cook for dinner), but just going out of my comfort zone tonight helps put things in a new light.  It IS a little scary trying something new, especially when you don’t think you’ll like it! 

So the good news is, K will finally have someone he can take out for a sushi date!  

Bad news is, it's not me.  ;)

"Marquis Au Chocolat" Recipe

Marquise Au Chocolat

Preparation time: 50 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Cooling time: 2 hours

Chilling Time: overnight

CAKE LAYER

Melted butter (about 2 tbs)

1 Tbs. ground almonds (plus extra for dusting)

Two 3.5 oz bars of dark chocolate (60% cocoa content or more)

One 3.5 oz bar of Maya Gold (or good-quality orange flavored chocolate)

1 ¼ C. sugar

2/3 C. plus 1 Tbs. unsalted butter

pinch of sea salt

5 large eggs

MOUSSE

9  oz. dark chocolate (60% cocoa content or more)

¾ C. confectioners sugar

¾ C. unsalted butter

5 large eggs, separated

2/3 C. whipping cream

cocoa powder for dusting

CREAM

1 C. whipping cream

3 Tbs. confectioners sugar

1 1/2  tsp. orange extract

plus fresh oranges for the garnish

Preheat oven to 350*

Brush the pan with melted butter and dust with the ground almonds, shaking off any excess.

To make the cake, melt the chocolate, sugar, butter, and salt in a large, heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then remove from heat.

Whisk the eggs with the ground almonds and fold into the chocolate mixture.  Continue to fold until the mixture thickens.  Pour into the cake pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for at least two hours before starting the mousse.

[But be careful where you set your mixing bowl down, especially if it's after midnight and you have 2 sleeping kids upstairs!]

To make the mousse, melt the chocolate in a large, heatproof bowl sitting over a saucepan of simmering water.  [Just try not to eat it...]  Remove from the heat and add half the confectioners’ sugar, stir, then whisk in the butter.  Whisk in the egg yolks, one at a time.  Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks start to form.  Add the remaining confectioners’ sugar and continue to whisk until glossy.  Whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

Add one-third of the egg whites in a large bowl to the chocolate mixture and carefully mix to blend.  Gently fold in the remaining whites, alternating with the whipped cream.  Do not overmix, but ensure that the mixture is well blended.  Pour the mousse over the cooled cake in the cake pan and refrigerate overnight. [If it hadn't been 5am, I might have remembered to snap a pic of the "finished product" before chilling!]

Remove the pan from the refrigerator about 15 minutes before serving.  Dip a butter knife into boiling water, dry it, and slide it around the sides of the cake to loosen it from the pan, then gently smooth the sides of the mousse.

For the cream, whisk together the whipping cream, sugar, and orange extract together until stiff peaks start to form. 

Serve each slice with a dollop of the orange cream, and garnish with orange.

[enjoy]

Day 8- Enter a Chocolate Dessert contest

I spent a lot of time in the month of January doing research, planning and preparing for all my adventures.  One chilly morning I walked into the daycare center where I teach my music classes, and on the front table, there were a stack of pink papers that caught my eye.  They were entry forms for a dessert contest.

A DECEDANT CHOCOLATE DESSERT CONTEST!!!

Didn’t take much convincing.  Once I read over the entry form (and learned that it was not necessary for the recipe to be original), I was sold- I knew I had to do this as one of my challenges!

I spent a long time searching through recipes and trying to find the perfect, most decadent chocolate dessert out there!  I landed on a recipe from Green & Black’s chocolate cookbook that had me drooling.   I spent more money on good, quality dark chocolate than I care to worry my husband about, but anything for chocolate, right?!?!  Besides, the chocolate contest was a part of Medina’s Chocolate Festival, which benefits “Faith In Action,” so it’s all for a good cause!  I had to make it the night before because it needed to chill overnight, but my sweet little Tasmanian Devils were such messy, mischievous little goofballs that night, that until they went to bed, I had no choice but to give them all of my attention.  I didn’t hate it one bit!  Well… not until the wee hours of the morning rolled around and between rocking my precious T back to sleep a couple times and the complicated recipe I chose, I was still baking.  

I took a 2 hour “nap” while the cake portion cooled, and before I could start on the mousse.  When I finally finished, it was 5:00 a.m. in the morning of the next day.  A day in which I had a music class, and then, of course, I had to decorate the cake and deliver it!  But even throughout all this craziness- my busy schedule, the lack of sleep, the mounting stress of “do I stand a chance?”- I still loved EVERY SECOND of the baking process!  It must just be in my blood (thanks mom!).

I finished the cake and decorated it with just moments to spare.

   

J and T were so tired, I knew they’d fall asleep the second we started driving, so I asked my little brother came with me to deliver the goods!  He drove my car for me while I held the cake, and then stayed in the car with the sleeping beauties while I ran the dessert in- what an angel!  He’s such a great help!  

The dessert delivery was very “professional” and even uneventful…. Except for this picture I asked them to take for my mom to see!  You can tell I hadn't gotten much sleep... 

The next day, we went to the Chocolate Festival to find out if I’d won!  It was very crowded and I was so confused on where I was supposed to go, but I'll save you the drama; I found out pretty early on that I did NOT win first place, at least.  They were selling slices of the “First Place” dessert- a brownie…. I’m sure a very fancy and delicious brownie, but folks…. It was a brownie.  I should just be honest with you instead of trying to mask my emotions.  I was REALLY disappointed!  I'm a very sore looser, and actually that's in my blood too (thanks Dad!).  Found out later that my dessert won an “Honorable Mention” award, which is kind of cool except that the man who told me kinda winked at me too… so I wasn’t sure if he was just trying to be nice and give me a leftover ribbon or something?  Because it DID say “Chocolate Cookie Contest” when I actually entered the “Decadent Chocolate Dessert” contest…. hmmmm... it was all just bizarre…

                    

But we had an awesome time at the festival, and not all of us came out losers- Tucker won a teddy bear in a raffle!  :)

As hard as it was for me to not be… irritated (that I lost... to a brownie.), it was a GREAT lesson to share with J, who wanted to know where my “birthday cake” went, and why I didn’t win.  But really though… I couldn’t possibly have expected to win a contest my first time entering with a cake that I had never made before!  And it’s DEFINITELY something I’ll do again next year if the timing works out.  But next time, I’ll practice a recipe or two and know what I’m doing.  Instead of winging it I’ll be winning it! 

By the way, there is supposed to be some sort of “recognition” for the winner and they’re also supposed to be printing the winning recipe!!!  SO you can bet that I’m going to make that winning brownie recipe to see if it REALLY was more decadent than my “Marquise Au Chocolat”… and if I have to eat my words in the end, so be it.  I’m sure they’ll be delicious.

(Recipe will be posted soon!)

Day 7- Mall Makeover

I can’t really say that I’ve always wanted to get a mall makeover.  It was just something that came to my mind when brainstorming for 30 things I’ve never done before.  But I thought it had a lot of potential to be really fun and useful.  After all, Sephora is filled to the brim with beauty products that I know nothing about, and while it’s fun to shop around in that store, it’s pretty overwhelming.

The makeover was nice- there were things I could complain about, but I don’t like to complain, so I won’t! J  

Wanna see?

Here is my “clean face” before picture:                          And here is my after picture:

It took All of this product to get me looking like the finished product!:

There were definitely a few things that I really liked, and bought or put on my “wish list.”  I bought this under-eye corrector for dark circles- a MUST HAVE for those sleepless nights dealing with teething, nightmares, congestion, “lost my blankie/paci" and other emergencies.  I’m excited about this one, I noticed a significant difference right away!  

I also bought an eye shadow pallet, plus eye shadow brushes, because you know, when you buy fancy eye shadows, they don’t come with the little spongy brushes!  I wasn’t SUPER crazyabout her technique with the eye shadow: if you look, it was really light on the bottom part of the eyelid and didn’t look like I had any shadow on there, and then it was darker on the outside corners and creases.  I just would’ve preferred some color on the visible part of the lid- don’t you think?  That being said, I really liked the shades and the fact that they were all matte colors (as opposed to shimmery eye shadow), so I bought it!  

On my wish list: I liked the foundation that she used (although she let me pick it out), which was an Urban Decay liquid foundation.  It surprised me!  It felt pretty light, not cake-y at all, and seemed easy to wash off at night.  Good stuff, although I'll probably stick with Bare Minerals for everyday.  And I liked that she actually used a brow brush to fill in my eyebrows (I don’t ever do that!).  

      

She used a “bronzing blush” that I wasn’t crazy about, but later on I found a product that had bronzer, highlights, and blush right in a row.  I think I might try that sometime so I can blend the brown, white and pink to get the shade I want that day.  Forgot to snap a picture of it tho!

All in all, it was a worthwhile experience, because I found new products and learned how to use them.  However, next time I'd like to try one of their technique classes.  Makeovers are fun, but I need to learn how to do the eye shadow blending, the contouring, the “smokey eyes,” or whatever else, on my own!  And I think it would be great to practice there with the experts, so they can critique my skills (or lack thereof).  Otherwise, what’s the point in makeovers if you can’t replicate the work?!

The only thing that I’m still a little stuck on is this.  Take a look at my “before” picture with my typical, everyday makeup on, next to the “makeover after” picture:

I don’t feel like there’s a huge difference.  A little here and there, glossy lips and heavier eye makeup, but I think what I’m realizing is how LITTLE my makeup matters.  I will definitely continue to use more of it when I need to/want to (for auditions, jobs, date nights, etc.)  But that said, I’m really content with feeling like I wasn’t far off to begin with, and remembering that true beauty is on the inside (cliché, I know, but get over it because it’s true), and while the outside is fun to play with and it’s nice to feel pretty, I still feel even prettier when I’m with my babes, making play-doh, going for walks, baking cookies, pushing them on the swings, or whatever else- regardless of what I look like! 

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."

1 Peter 3:3-4