Red Velvet Cake

Valentine's day at our house is not complete without a decadent red velvet cake.  My husband and I celebrate our anniversary and well, every holiday, with this all time favorite dessert.  I am no baker by any means, but I do want to learn.  MJ is 6 months right now, but I can just imagine how much fun it will be to cook and bake together :)

Here's a recipe that I followed

For cakes:

• 1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening
• 2 cups granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling the parchment paper
• 1 Tbsp. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 4 1/2 tsp. (2 tubes) red food coloring gel
• 3 cups cake flour, plus more for flouring the cake pans
• 1 1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
• 1 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/4 tsp. distilled white vinegar
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter (approx.), nonstick spray or vegetable oil, for greasing the cake pans

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Eggplant Caponata

INGREDIENTS

2 cups olive oil
2 lbs. eggplant, cut into 1″ cubes (1-2 medium sized eggplant)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 package celery, roughly chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste
3 tbsp. tomato paste, thinned with ¼ cup water (substitute ketchup)
1 cup crushed canned tomatoes
6 oz. green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
½ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup golden raisins (red is ok too)
¼ cup salt-packed capers, rinsed and drained
5 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. finely grated unsweetened chocolate
1  cup finely shredded basil
2 tbsp. pine nuts
Mini crostinis- toasted

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Sazon Chicken Pasta

These measurements are estimates. I really love garlic, so i probably added twice what i suggested. It's your meal, season it the way YOU like it versus what the recipe calls for. Enjoy!  

 Ingredients 

 Bow tie pasta or your preference

1lbs of chicken breast/thigh (boneless)

1 Green and/or Red pepper

1 Onions

½ pack Mushrooms

1 can of Artichoke

1 Green cubanelle

¼ can Banana Peppers

4 Fresh garlic cloves

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Lemon

Sazon

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23rd Meeting

We hope everyone had a lovely Valentine’s day. We sure did. Jalpa hosted it with her husband and adorable baby girl, MJ.  We celebrated this exchange with our husbands. But to be honest with you it was almost like they weren’t there. They congregated in their little corner (in front of the TV) and we in our little corner (kitchen/dining room). That being said, the husbands had a blast. Parul’s husband even suggested we should do this on a monthly basis with them. Haha. Funny guy. They were impressed with the food, presentation, and selection. It was quiet funny hearing reaction from our husbands later. This is the first time they were all invited to an official exchange and their experience was a positive one.

We started the day with two appetizers: a spinach salad and eggplant caponata made by Vaishali and Parul. We then moved on to pasta with chicken dish (still remains to be named) made by yours truly. And lastly we ended our meals with a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache by Nishal and a red velvet cake made by Jalpa. 

The two little babies, MJ and Ayu, finally met. They had last “met” when they were in their mommies’ bellies.  And speaking of little one, we’ll have one more to add to the bunch – Vaishali’s baby ‎número two. It’s exciting to see our little exchange family grow. When we started this we had one little baby and by the end of this coming summer we will have 5!

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