Savory and Sweet Crepes

For Labor Day weekend, the whole family got together in Minnesota.  This is our annual family reunion where we all get together are go to the Minnesota State Fair.  My mom and I always enjoy ourselves wandering in and out of all the buildings and finding the best (read least deep fried) food at the fair.  There are a few foods we have to have every year.  We always stop by the crepe booth and get the cranberry, brie, and almond crepe.  The chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick is another yearly tradition.  We also spend a while each years examining all the craft products like the gorgeous quilts and afghans.  We look at all the produce and baked goods and try to determine the judging criteria for a perfect potato or spice cakes.  It is a wonderful annual tradition.

As part of our family get together, Noah, my father, and I all cooked a dinner for all 14 people in the family.  Somehow we decided on crepes.  Now this is not something I would normally make for a large group.  Crepes take quite a bit of time, can be a lot of work, and are difficult to make well in just a skillet.  My aunt, however, happened to have an electric crepe maker that simplified the process some what.

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are often overlooked in the cookie family.  They are a simple sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon and sugar.  They are not my favorite cookie (not enough chocolate) but I much prefer them to the frosted sugar cookies.  Someone requested I make a batch, and so two friends and I decided to make them.  My family's recipe comes from my Aunt Linda, a wonderful lady that past away some years ago.  It is very simple to make and results in a lovely buttery and cinnamon cookie.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Sauce

As my sister pointed out, I have been quite lazy with my posting.  But finally, I came to my senses and baked up a cake.  Several years ago, my sister made a Flourless chocolate cake with raspberry sauce that our entire family loved, but we have not made it in a very long time.  Since I had extra raspberry sauce from the lemon cake I had previously baked, my brother convinced me that I should make the Flourless chocolate cake my sister had made previously.  This extremely rich cake is quite the delicacy, especially served with raspberry sauce and fresh berries.

Lemon-Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Sauce

In our household, everyone always seems to enjoy homemade desserts, as I would hope is the same in all households. While growing up, block parties were a large event, with a bouncy house and lots of fun for children.  All of the block joined together in the evening to share appetizers and, our favorite, desserts.  My mother made an amazing lemon buttermilk cake with raspberry sauce to share.  Although cakes can sometimes be an ordeal, this simple cake is a delicious treat.

Welcome and Chocolate Cake

Hello!

I proposed the idea of a family food blog to my family as a way of encouraging them to cook more.  I love cooking and and food takes up the majority of my free time, whether it cooking my favorite comfort food or trying something unusual at a new restaurant.  I'm a college student, however, so free time is hard to come by.  But I just finished up my finals for the year and so I have a summer free of standard board meals and time to cook while I stay at college and work on research.  

Today was my roommate's birthday and so, since I was not busy packing up or moving into a new room, I had time to make a cake.  Chocolate cake has been a favorite in our family for a while (or at least it is the cake of my choice).  My mom generally makes it with this very rich chocolate frosting that almost tastes like fudge.  A while ago, I started putting chocolate mousse between the layers.  This turned in to me simply using chocolate mousse as a frosting.  I like it better than frosting (and maybe even better than the cake) so I decided to up the ratio of mousse to everything else as much as possible.  It makes for a very rich cake and you have to refrigerate it so if that sounds like too much, use chocolate frosting instead.  You can also simply serve the chocolate mousse by itself with some raspberries or a piece of good solid chocolate for an easy but rich dessert.