Dulce de Leche-Nutella Swirl Loaf Cake

There are still a few things Dan and I need to do to fully recover from our Great Beach Robbery -- getting new driver's licenses, for example -- but everything is closed on Sundays, so we've been having a pretty lazy day so far. We slept in until the hungry meows of our kitties could no longer be ignored, fed the little beasts, and then promptly collapsed in front of the TV to catch up on all the shows we missed during vacation.

But, once we'd blown through all the eps in our DVR queue, things got real boring real fast. Sundays are just so blah. I don't know about you, but nothing interesting ever happens to us on Sundays, and the day is mostly spent being lazy and dreading the start of the work week. As I type this, Dan is moaning "Boooo, we gotta work tomorrow! Ughhhhhhh." 

You know what's really good for fighting the end-of-weekend blues, though? Cake. Particularly if it's cake made with ice cream, homemade dulce de leche, and Nutella. Mmmm.

For this dulce de leche loaf cake, I found a simple vanilla loaf cake recipe online and modified it to fit my needs. Vanilla ice cream instead of chilled heavy cream; dulce de leche instead of sugar; and Nutella because if I didn't immediately use up the rest of the jar, I was going to keep eating it by the spoonful  and feel guilty. The resulting loaf was moist and sweet on the inside, with a deliciously crunchy Nutella-laced crust. 

Dulce de Leche-Nutella Swirl Loaf Cake

Ingredients:

- 1 cup vanilla ice cream, melted at room temperature.

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2/3 cup dulce de leche

- 1/2 cup Nutella

- 1-1/2 cups flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp salt

Steps:

(1) Preheat oven to 350.

(2) In a large bowl, mix together ice cream, eggs, vanilla, and dulce de leche until well-combined. The dulce de leche will make the batter clumpy, but just keep working at it until everything is smooth.

(3) Add dry ingredients.

(4) Pour most of the batter into a greased/floured loaf pan. Save about 1/2 cup for later.

(5) Add nutella to the loaf pan in well-spaced spoonfuls. Top with remaining batter. Then, run a knife through the whole thing to create a nice swirl/marbled pattern.

(6) Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake starts to come away from the side of the pan.

(7) Enjoy alone, with coffee, or smeared with more dulce de leche.

For other delicious chocolate recipes, go here.

Dulce de Leche

So, Dan and I just got back from a week in Costa Rica. We're a little more tan, a little more relaxed, and approximately $1200 poorer. No, that's not how much our trip cost...it's the combined value of all the stuff that got stolen from us on the beach at Playa Grande, Montezuma. Yeah. Don't you just love petty thievery?

Anyway.

Other than the bag-snatching incident, it was a good trip. The weather was beautiful, the food was delicious, and we even managed to squeeze in an exhilarating zip-lining tour through the canopy before racing home a few days early to take care of bank account stuff. Even so, I was more than a little bummed when we got home (I could still be on the beach, you know!). Instead of wallowing, though, I decided to make something for my blog. That's dedication, y'all.

So, why dulce de leche? Why not? Also, I had a bunch of condensed milk leftover from way back when, and it needed to be consumed one way or the other. Besides, dulce de leche is delicious, and the process of making it seemed pretty straightforward. Easy enough for a Friday night, anyway.

In the end, I was too much of a wussy to go the usual route and boil a can of condensed milk for 3 hours. I mean...I was not prepared to hover over a pot in the kitchen for multiple hours, and then what if the can exploded and my kitchen caught fire? I really couldn't handle a destroyed kitchen after getting robbed. Fortunately though, I was able to find a recipe online that didn't involve can-boiling -- just good ol' oven + condensed milk in a pan + water bath action.

Since I've never made dulce de leche any other way, I can't comment on any difference in texture or taste, but I can tell you that it's delicious. Thick and creamy, delightfully sticky, sweet, caramel-y goodness. Yum.

Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:
- 1 14 oz can of condensed milk

Steps:
(1) Preheat oven to 425.
(2) Pour condensed milk into a round baking dish. (I used a Pyrex pie dish)
(3) Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
(4) Place dish in a larger baking pan, and fill pan with water until 2/3 of the pie dish is submerged.
(5) Stick whole thing in the oven for 60-90 minutes, checking every 30 minutes to see if mixture is burning, or if water needs refilling.
(6) Pull dish out of the oven, uncover, and whisk mixture until smooth. Let cool, then store in airtight bottle or jar.
(7) Enjoy by the spoonful, smeared on top of stuff, or baked into desserts.

Watermelon-Lime Agua Fresca

Remember when we were younger and watermelons could only be bought in the summer? A cold slice of the juicy red melon was always something to be looked forward to at picnics and bbq's when the weather was nice. And the seeds! Kind of a pain to eat around, but fun to spit at your friends and try to see who could spit them the farthest. Just don't accidentally swallow any of the slimy little buggers though -- a watermelon will grow in your stomach! 

Nowadays you can walk into any grocery store pretty much any time of year and pick up a juicy, sweet melon with no seeds. Isn't that mind-blowing? I can't decide how I feel about it -- on the one hand, it's convenient when I'm craving watermelon in the colder seasons, but on the other hand...watermelon is a summer fruit, damnit!

My dad is a champion watermelon selector. He can always tell just by lightly thumping the side of a melon which one is going to be the reddest and sweetest. I, on the other hand, am not so talented. I make a big show of thumping and listening, but all the melons sound exactly the same to me. So, the watermelons I bring home are usually pretty hit or miss. My most recent purchase was kind of a miss. The flesh was more pink than red, and not very sweet. Still refreshing, but not as delicious to eat. 

So, what to do with not-so-delicious watermelon? Blend that sucker up and turn it into a light and refreshing summer beverage! Like agua frescas, for example, which are fruit drinks made with blended fruit/water infused with various herbs. Generally non-alcoholic, but if you want to add some tequila, I certainly won't judge you... 

Watermelon-Lime Agua Fresca (From The Kitchn)

Ingredients:
- 2 lbs seedless watermelon

- 1 cup cold water

- 2 tsp lime juice

- 1 tbsp simple syrup (See below for recipe)

- 1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Steps:
(Simple syrup)

(1) Mix 1/4 cup water with 1/4 cup sugar. Bring to bowl over medium-low heat and simmer, without stirring, until all sugar is dissolved.

(2) Remove from heat, then add 1 tbsp chopped mint. Let steep for 15 minutes, and set aside.

(Agua fresca)

(1) Blend watermelon, lime juice, water, and simple syrup.
(2) Strain through a mesh strainer or cheesecloth.

(3) Serve over ice. Garnish with a mint to keep things classy.

Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce

I woke up this morning with a mean craving for steak. I'm probably low on iron or something. Unfortunately for me though, the cafeteria at work doesn't serve juicy ribeyes. Instead, I had to settle for a slightly soggy egg salad sandwich with bland tomatoes. Very sad, I know.

I really wanted steak though. Thought about it all day, in fact. So, I dragged Dan kicking and screaming to the grocery store after work to buy some. I know he hates running errands with me, but he had to pick me up from the metro anyway and since we were already in the car, why not keep on driving to Safeway? Plus, we spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the store and he got a delicious steak dinner out of the bargain, so...tough shit.

When we cook it ourselves, Dan and I rarely eat our steaks with any kind of sauce. We prefer to have it with just a little salt and pepper (OK, a lot of salt for me), and drenched in its own juices. But, Steamy Kitchen had a delicious looking post on steak with chimichurri sauce last week, and I really wanted to try it. I'd seen chimichurri-sauced meat options on menus before, but never got them because I didn't know what chimichurri was. Without an explanation of the ingredients, it sounded vaguely sinister and little too close to "chinchilla" for comfort. No rodent for me, thanks! If only restaurant menus had pictures as pretty as Steamy Kitchen's for every food item. Or, you know, if I spoke Spanish...

The steak, which was a thinner cut than I usually go for, turned out to be tender and juicy, with a pleasing iron-y tang that satisfied my craving in a big way. The chimichurri sauce was OK, but I didn't go wild for it. Maybe because it had red wine vinegar in it, and I don't like sour/tangy sauces. My taste in food runs more towards the sweet and salty. Dan, however, loves spice and tang, and he enjoyed his steak and chimichurri sauce mightily. 

Recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Steamy Kitchen blog.

Mango Daiquiris

I think it's pretty obvious by now that I'm a girly drink kind of gal. I mean, I could try to roll with the boys and throw back beers and booze on the rocks, but why suffer? I like sugar. I like fruit. I don't like the taste of alcohol.  It would just be silly to pretend otherwise. Sure, I suppose if I could acquire a taste for beer my bar tabs would be a lot lower, but...not worth it. I need to have fruity, blended drinks in my life, damnit.

Daiquiris are pretty high on my list of favorite blended drinks, not only because they are sweet and fruity and delicious, but also because I associate them with summer, hammocks, sandy beaches, and tropical vacations.  Seriously, there is nothing more relaxing than an icy cold daiquiri, especially after a long and productive day at work. And no fruit is more delicious this time of year than a juicy mango. What happens when you combine the two? Instant happiness, and the perfect cure for the mid-week blues. 

Mango Daiquiris

Ingredients:
- 2 fresh mangos, chopped into pieces
- 2 trays' worth of ice
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 4 oz rum (I used Parrot Bay Mango Rum for even more mango flavor)

- 1 tbsp sugar

Steps:
(1) Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth and frosty.
(2) Serve immediately, preferably with a heap of chips and guacamole.

For other great drinks ideas, click here.