Tag: cookouts

Yes, it has taken me almost a month to post about this. And yes, aside from growing a human being this was possibly the coolest thing I did all summer. We had a cookout last month, and to celebrate the festive occasion I made this:

It is all chocolate cake, with spearmint leaves for lettuce and fondant for cheese. Plus Rice Krispies for sesame seeds. This was a hit, and it was really pretty fun to do. I got the directions from the July/August issue of Food Network Magazine. And I did use the boxed cake mix for this, largely because I wanted to make sure I had the amount of cake and consistency correct. I even bought the exact right Pyrex bowl. Obviously that means the cake was nowhere near as delicious as cake made with actual butter and ingredients, but even mediocre cake is still cake! Next time I shall make the cake from scratch, no shortcuts.

Apologies for the some of the late-night photos with too much flash.

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
2 18.25-ounce boxes chocolate cake mix
8 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup green decorating sugar or granulated sugar
8 spearmint leaf gummy candies
3 ounces orange rolled fondant (available at craft stores) **I had to dye my own fondant, the only orange I could find was neon. Not appetizing.
Cornstarch, for dusting
1 16-ounce tub vanilla frosting
1 16-ounce tub chocolate frosting
3/4 teaspoon yellow food coloring
5 drops red food coloring
2 tablespoons crispy rice cereal

Read more on Sunday Dessert: Cheeseburger Cake…

Adam is a genius, that’s all I’ve got to say.

Last month a Serious Eats contributor cracked the recipe for In-N-Out’s Double Double Animal Style burger. Adam wanted to have a few friends over to try it out, so that’s what we did yesterday. An In-N-Out cookout. And it was pretty darn excellent.

This was actually the experimental prototype he made on Saturday while I was at BlogHer, but I didn’t get any pictures of yesterday’s finished burgers. In fact, I barely saw them. All I saw were grabbing hands and devouring mouths. They disappeared so fast that I’m amazed we didn’t all fall into food comas shortly after.

The recipe (which I’m not going to post here, just follow the link above) is super complicated and involves grinding your own meat for patties. The patties need to be 40% fat, which you just can’t get already ground. Adam lovingly prepared the proper size patties, chilled them as directed…it was a beautiful thing.

Read more on In-N-Out Cookout…

It’s officially cookout season!

Yesterday we spent the evening with friends from my sorority alumna chapter for a Greek-themed cookout. This was the first gathering of an unofficial Epicurean club our friend Audrey is starting up. And it was such a good time.

I made spanikopita, two kinds. I’ll post those recipes sometime this week.

I also made this dessert with Greek yogurt, honey, walnuts, and raspberries.

Read more on A Greek Epicurean Feast…

Today was our end-of-summer (meaning back-to-school for me) cookout, and we had such a good time. You know, we’re truly lucky to be surrounded by such great people; I have to brag on the group of family and friends we’ve managed to surround ourselves with. Whether they were here today or just with us in spirit, I love our crew. Even when they disagree, I couldn’t ask for better.

Read more on August Cookout…