Matcha Buttercream Frosted Chocolate Cake + a Birthday!

March 17, 2016 in Recipes

Happy St Patrick's Day and Happy 24th Birthday to me!!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

On any given hospital in the baby section on St Patrick's Day, there are bound to be a handful of newborns named Patrick and Patricia. I was born as Alessandra, after a ballet dancer my mom admired at the time. When it turned out no one could pronounce my name correctly and began referring to me as Ali, my Lola tried to convince my mom to go the Patricia route. After three days as a nameless chubby baby my parents finally decided on Madeline, and I am actually glad because I really like my name!! Do you have any crazy baby name stories?

Over the course of the past week I've been eating Lucky Charms almost every morning while I watch Gilmore Girls and get ready for work. I've also eaten green cake, green doughnuts, and salad (green!). Now I just need to hang out near my red-headed husband for extra luck, and maybe my pot of gold will plop from the sky like skittles!

Excuse my bad cake decorating skills, but I am still learning and experimenting and thought this cake was too yummy not to post. If you are new to matcha it is essentially a green tea powder. You can find it in most stores (I got mine at Whole Foods!) and I love that it naturally adds a green color to the buttercream without the use of food dye. It pairs wonderfully with chocolate and makes a perfect cake for celebrating a birthday or St. Patrick's Day (or both in my case!).

Now, I'm going to eat cake for breakfast! And whatever else I want for the day all while wearing green!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Chocolate Cake with Matcha Buttercream Frosting (makes two 8-inch cakes)

my favorite Chocolate Cake recipe
Matcha Buttercream:
- 2 1/2 tsp. matcha powder
- 1/2 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- Blend all ingredients together in a handheld mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment until smooth!

Chocolate Biscotti with a Tahini Glaze

March 11, 2016 in Recipes

Happy Friday friends! In a few hours I will be in upstate NY at the Airbnb we rented to celebrate our 3 year anniversary. When we rented this cabin back in February, I pictured a snowy landscape and a fire inside and hot cocoa and a warm cabin where there is nothing on the agenda but relaxing! (Last year at this time we stayed in a hotel near Central Park and there was snow and 30 degree weather.) But quite on the contrary, it has been in the 60s/70s all week so it may mean we do some hiking and exploring outside, which is actually even better!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, just yesterday I wore a dress without tights. Bare legs, everyone, in early March! How simply wonderful. Spring, are you really here to stay??

These chocolate biscotti are not any more difficult to make than homemade cookies, they just have to be shaped into a log, cut into slivers, and baked twice. These are dipped in a tahini glaze (tahini is a sesame paste that tastes very similar to peanut butter) and it pairs extremely well with the chocolate and chocolate chips.

Today I am guest posting over at Anchored to Sunshine where my fellow-blogger Amanda writes! She is from Florida and recently moved to Washington D.C., so we have that common ground in which we are both from the South and now we are attempting to make the Northeast our home!

Check out the full blog post and the recipe for these biscotti here!

Lentil Vegetable Chili

March 07, 2016 in Recipes

A couple of weeks ago I went to a morning spin class at FlyWheel near Lincoln Center. Everyone in the class was unusually chatty and excited, and although I like to think of myself as a morning person, all this really means is I like waking up to the sun, slowly drinking my coffee, and eating breakfast at my own pace, but if it means showing up to an early AM workout I am not necessarily excited to be there. Once the class started I discovered the reason why everyone was so excited--it was a Hamilton the Musical themed ride!! The entire ride everyone was enthusiastically singing along, including the instructor, and I felt like the lone wolf because I didn't know any of the lyrics to any of the songs, so I kind of pretended to mouth silently throughout so I didn't mess up everyone's enthusiasm.

After sweating to the musical for 45 minutes, I couldn't get the songs out of my head as soon as I left. And then, I saw the live performance of one of the songs during the Grammy's. Since then, I have been listening to the songs continuously, and am D-Y-I-N-G to see the show. If you don't know anything about it, it is all about Alexander Hamilton's life and the duel with Aaron Burr, but the musical is so unique because it is a rap, hip-hop, pop infusion of amazing-ness set in colonial America!! If anyone reading this has access to tickets (even at the last row in the top) I will do pretty much anything (that fits within my moral guidelines)!! Until then, I can only sadly listen to the music from afar, until tickets became available again and at a reasonable price. Just do yourself a favor and start listening already if you haven't.

One of the most consistent things I make in our kitchen are hearty, warm, one-pot dishes. Roasted chicken, beef pot roast, soups, and chili are a few of the things I tend to lean on when I don't know what to make. They are easy, don't require a lot of clean up, and usually last a few meals which are also perfect for packed work lunches. While it seems like I make a lot of vegetarian dishes on here, I am in fact not a vegetarian, and usually make my chili with either ground turkey or ground beef. But I like to use my blog as a platform to try new dishes, ones that I don't normally make, and I love this lentil chili because I think it perfectly straddles the line between a veggie soup and a full on chili, as well as a winter-y dish and a spring one.

Lentil Vegetable Chili (serves 5-6)

1 lb. cooked lentils
1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis
2 - 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 medium onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh herbs for garnish

Directions:
In a Dutch oven or large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat. Add onions, and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add bell pepper and garlic, and cook for another 2 minutes or until soft.

Add lentils, both types of beans, diced tomatoes, corn, and seasonings. Stir together and add broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with bread or sour cream or cheese or cornbread or none of the above because you ran out and it tastes good by itself anyway!