Black-Russian Cake

My friend H. recently made a delicious Black Russian Cake for a movie night (read about the movie night here). The recipe comes from AllRecipes and according to H. it's pretty authentic and the results are similar to the cake she's had in Russia when she lived there. It was a delicious cake. Firm on the outside, soft in the middle and covered in a delicious glaze. It's just the right combination of chocolate and coffee flavors. H. shared some pictures with me that I thought I'd share here with all of you. I hope you'll take the opportunity to make this cake. What other time will you be able to cook with vodka and Kahlua?!

Cake batter in H.'s new bundt pan.

H.'s dog Asher was tired after working so hard helping H. with the cake.

A beautiful shot of the cake from above after it was glazed.

The glaze is a combination of Kahlua and confectioner's sugar. Mmm...

Cake is done! Time for a nap.

Black Russian Bundt Cake

Valentine's Sunday Round-Up ~ February 14th, 2010

For this special Valentine's Day round-up, I thought I'd feature some dishes I have made for my beau Carlos.

Smoked Paprika Chicken via  Cookin' Canuck - I gave him leftovers in a tupperware container and he loved it so much that he gnawed at the container in a desperate attempt to get more.
Chicken, Black Bean Chipotle Soup via Cookin' Canuck and slightly altered version via Thoughtful Eating - This has been a staple soup and a regular crockpot meal. It's a shared favorite.
Pastel de Choclo - Carlos is half-Chilean and this is one of his favorite dishes.
Chocolate-Chip Banana Bread - After a date at Flatbread, I made this banana bread. And I made it again. And again. And Carlos enjoyed it every time.
Platinum Blondies (with chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips) - The first dessert I ever made for Carlos.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Progresso SouperYou Product Reviews and Giveaway

It's time for another giveaway! This is sponsored again by Progresso and MyBlogSpark. They sent me cans of Progresso Light and 100 Calorie soups to try out and I had fun including them as part of a healthy lunch. I get bored easily, so the fact that there are so many different flavors to try out keeps my tastebuds hopping!

Progresso is also having a SouperYou promotion to market their low calorie soups. In addition to my little giveaway, you can sign up for their big sweepstakes which includes a trip to NYC from May 21st-2rd. It includes free airfaire, 2-night stay at a hotel, a makeover and a $1k shopping spree and a consultation at a major NY department store. Pretty sweet. You can't sign up for that here. Go to http://www.Progresso.com/SouperYou  to sign up. You have to sign up for that before March 15th so get to it.

Here is a sampling of the soups I tried out:

Beef Pot Roast
80 calories per serving, 2 servings
- My favorite out of the bunch! Good pieces of beef, lots of vegetables, tasty broth. It was excellent.

Chicken Barley
80 calories per serving, 2 servings
- Good nice pieces of chicken, carrots, onions, celery and peas! The barley gave the soup some substance.

French Onion
50 calories per serving, 2 servings
- Not so good on it's own. If you can't make French onion soup on your own, get this and go all out with the bread and cheese.

Southwest Style Vegetable
60 calories per serving, 2 servings
- Great Southwest flavor, the addition of black beans is very nice. Chockfull of veggies.

Traditional Manhattan Clam Chowder
100 calories per serving, 2 servings
- I'm mostly a New England Clam Chowder but I like to have occassional affairs with the Manhattan version. This tryst was delightful.

Light Italian Style Meatball
80 calories per serving, 2 servings
- This was just ok. The meatballs and the pasta were tasty but the vegetables were negligible. I would have liked more content.

Light Chicken and Dumplings
80 calories per serving, 2 servings

- Good attempt! I applaud Progresso for trying this. It's hard to package the Dumplings though so they were so-so. I'd rather take plain chicken soup in a can and add biscuit dough to it while it's heating up.

Chicken & Wild Rice
100 calories per serving, 2 servings
- You cannot go wrong with Chicken & Wild Rice soup and Progresso did well with this one. Lots of wild rice, which I enjoy and nice chunks of chicken.

Hearty Penne
80 calories per serving, 2 servings
- Take a pass on this one. It was so bland and boring. Just penne, carrots, bland broth and a few bits of celery. And one lonely kernel of corn (which I think was there in error).

*Calorie counts come from the soup cans themselves!

Now onto the giveaway! One selected candidate will win 2 cans of Progresso soup, a Progresso soup mug and a Progresso digital jump rope complete with counter and adjustable straps. Pretty swell package.

To enter the contest, tell me one clever way you try to reduce your calorie intake. For me, if given the option, I always order in small. Never in medium, large, extra-large, super-size, venti, etc. I even order Starbucks drinks in Short size. It's not on the menu, but they will serve you any hot drink that size if you request it.

Contest Rules and Guidelines:

1) In the comment form or in an e-mail to QuelleLove at gmail dot com, tell me a clever way in which you reduce your calorie intake.
2) Submit your entry by Sunday 2/21.
3) Names of participants will be written on slips of paper, to be swirled around in my trusty cloche hat and one will be picked out blindly and at random.
4) You cannot indicate which soups you want. So just know, that if you are vegetarian or have other dietary restrictions that you may end up with a soup you don't want.
5) I will announce the winner here on Monday the 22nd and will contact the winner for shipping address information to send out the Progresso SouperYou package.

How to Cook Rice ~ Raquelle-Style

This is the method of cooking rice that my mother passed down to me. I don't know how she developed it, or why it works, but it's by far the best way to cook rice. My mother uses extra oil in hers but I like to keep it light. If you decide to try this method, just do all the steps. Don't question them, do them. Good luck.

Start with 2 cups of long grain rice.

Wash the rice thoroughly by filling a bowl with the rice with water. Move the rice around with your fingers so that the water has access to the kernels. Drain the water. Repeat until the water you are draining is almost clear. You are removing a lot of the excess starch off the rice by doing this.

Now you have clean rice!

In the meantime, boil some water.

In your pot, add about a tablespoon of oil for every cup of rice. So in this case, add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pot. Heat the oil at medium heat until it starts to sizzle.

Stir in the rice so that it's coated with the hot oil. Cook for about 2 minutes. Coating the rice with oil will help prevent stickiness and cooking the rice in advance this way will help bring out the natural flavor of the rice.

For every 1 cup of rice, add 1-1/2 cups of water. In this case, add 3 cups of boiling water. Stir thoroughly.

Salt the pot well. Taste test the salted water until it's too your liking. Do this now because it will be difficult to season the rice later.

Cook rice at medium high heat, stirring occasionally.

Cook until the rice absorbs almost all of the water. Create a little well in the center of the rice and smooth the rice around the well evenly. When that well is almost dry of water, turn the heat down to low.

Cover the top of the pot with a large piece of aluminum foil. Don't ask why. Just do it. Then add the cover on top. Cook for 10 minutes.

At 10 minutes, turn over the rice. Don't just fluff it! Turn sections of it over. This way all the rice gets some time at the bottom of the pot, closest to the heat source.

Cover with the foil and pot cover and cook for 10 more minutes. Fluff the rice and serve. Enjoy!

Rice