Menu Plan: November 8 - November 14

Having exhausted all my ideas on why my photos won't properly upload on Blogger, there are no pictures of the cake we took with us to the Murder Mystery Party last night.  (And no pictures of Thing 1 or Thing 2, either, for those of you who asked.)

It's a flourless cake.  Just three ingredients - 1/2 pound of unsalted butter, 1 pound of bittersweet chocolate, and 6 eggs.  My preference of bittersweet chocolate is Valhrona Amer, which is 71% cocoa.  It's like the Darth Vader of chocolate.  Beware the Dark Side! 

To cut through the richness, my choice of accompanying sauce is a raspberry puree.  Again, three total ingredients - raspberries, lemon juice, and superfine sugar (not powdered).  Because only the raspberry juice is boiled down, not the pulp, it retains a fresher, tarter taste.  And the dark red against the dark brown almost black looks so cool.

Even though another couple brought a cleverly decorated cake, mine tasted better.  Rolled fondant takes so much time that the red velvet cake underneath was a bit on the dry side.  My one attempt at a fondant cake wasn't as moist as most of my cakes.  But the hand-painted fondant flowers were really memorable.  (It's was Mr. Gaelic's birthday cake the first year we were married.)

But enough about desserts.

• Monday
• Breakfast:  carrot-raisin muffins
• Supper:  butternut squash soup, homemade potato bread
• Tuesday
• Breakfast:  cereal (as always on Tuesdays)
• Supper:  barbecued ribs, homemade white bread, sauce (Ask anyone who's ever tried Dreamland BBQ, it's the only way to eat ribs.)
• Wednesday
• Breakfast:  soft-boiled eggs, toast
• Supper:  fried okra, black-eyed peas, picked beets, spoon bread
• Thursday
• Breakfast:  cereal (Veteran's Day = no school = sleep late)
• Supper:  French onion soup, salad (Veteran's Day = remembering my daddy who landed on Normandy Beach on D+14 = French food)
• Friday
• Breakfast:  English muffins, fig preserves or honey (We're currently out of Tupelo honey, so I'll poke around the condiment section for something interesting.)
• Supper:  cheese soufflé, asparagus
• Saturday
• Breakfast:  pancakes, bacon
• Supper:  pizza for girls, Mr. Gaelic and I are headed to a party at church for major donors of a new grand piano
• Sunday
• Breakfast:  sausage gravy, homemade biscuits
• Dinner:  roast chicken, potatoes Anna, green beans

Sometime during the week, we'll finish off the last five slices of chocolate cake.  The slices are quite thin since the cake is quite rich.  As well as the almond cookies that Maeve made last night while we were trying to solve the murder mystery. 

My budding chef.  Following in her sisters', and mother's, and father's footsteps.