It's October!?!

It's been too long since I've updated. I can't even recap all that's happened in the last month in one short post. I'll just give a few of the main points.

I'm a little over half-way with Enzo. I promise to get a picture up here soon! We're all very excited to meet him and I'm starting to think more seriously about clothes and sleeping arrangements and things like that. I'm also looking forward to swaddling and snuggling a baby while it's cold outside.

We finally took some "first year" pictures of Ruby. We'll take some more closer to Christmas and so we have some family photos. Our friend Chris took them (he took some when she was 5 months old and we used some of them for Christmas cards) and he's going to take some of me when I'm ultra pregnant (in only a few months!) as well as when Enzo is just a few weeks old. We didn't do either of those things with Ruby but I don't think that means we can't with Enzo.

Here's Ruby in the dress that both my mom and I wore in our first year pictures

I've done a LOT of researching, experimenting and near obsessing over the food I'm feeding my family and feel that I've hit a pretty good medium. We're eating primarily organic produce (largely thanks for the food coop which we're still a part of), I'm making whole grain baked goods at home (that I'm soaking but don't think I'm going to get too much deeper into it), we're drinking raw milk as well as making most of our dairy good at home with it (except hard cheeses like cheddar) and we're limiting our sugar big time. I'm trying not to feed Ruby any sugar and only eat it myself in sweets that I know will be really good and it's going pretty well. Most things are easy to substitute honey or dates or even just cinnamon but there are some (like chocolate cake, ice cream, etc) that need it and in those cases we get the most natural kinds or at least no corn syrup brands we can find or make them at home - which is still where we've produced the best chocolate cake so we're doing pretty well.

Speaking of Ruby and sweets: She's so sweet. Although we really have no comparisons to go by, we're pretty sure Ruby is advanced. I think she's even snuck into her "terrible twos" early. She's so smart, talking a lot and pushing whatever boundries she can. She's a ton of fun, though, and we're having a good time.

We waffled for quite some time about whether or not we'd get rid of The Dude or build him a dog house or get him some chickens to herd (getting chickens is still on the back burner) but we finally decided we'd give him a try as an inside dog. He really is a good dog and we'd like him to be a part of the family. So far (after about a week) he's doing really well and Ruby enjoys having him around. I just have to vacuum a lot more.

I'll leave you with another photo of Ruby and promise to get back here sooner rather than later and fill you in further on the daily happenings. Have a wonderful week!

Ruby is wearing a traditional first year celebration dress from Korea that some sweet Korean friends of ours gave her

Charles Enzo's Chocolate Cake

So we're having a boy. It hasn't fully sunk in yet. It probably won't until he's here and I can hold him but I think that's the feeling with having babies whatever the gender. I guessed he was a boy but I think in the back of my mind I was only guessing that because I really thought he was a girl.

Speaking of Charlie (or Enzo, we're still deciding what we're going to call him although we're pretty set on the name Charles Enzo) here's the recipe and appropriate notes for the most amazing chocolate cake ever created.

I started with a recipe that a blogger, Hayley, also known as Buff Chickpea, adapted from one that originally appeared in Gourmet Magazine in 1999. You can read all about that and see her version on her blog. I didn't have enough chocolate bar to do the ganache that it called for so I found a delightful blog with an equally delightful frosting recipe that I adapted/morphed into the icing. If you need a basic chocolate frosting recipe check out G'ma's Bakery.


Charlie's Chocolate Cake
 
3 ounces Ghiradelli dark chocolate (or other 60% cacao baking chocolate)
1 1/2 cups of your favorite coffee, the stronger and more flavorful the better (I used cold brewed toffee flavored coffee - Cookie Doodle from Sprouts for those of you who can get it)
2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup Guiness beer (you'll have to drink or find someone else to drink the rest in the bottle but it's worth it - don't leave it out)

1/2 cup buttermilk (add a tbsp of vinegar per cup of milk to create buttermilk)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 300°F, and grease two 8 or 10-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with rounds of wax paper and grease paper.

Melt chocolate using the double boiler method.

Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, melted chocolate, coffee and Guiness to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about an hour.

Cool layers in pans on racks for several minutes and then run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

I made the cake after Ruby went to sleep so I waited to make the frosting and assemble it until the next day lest I fall asleep with a mixer in my hand. I started with the basic frosting recipe and added melted chocolate, a little bit of this and that and more coffee and I ended up with a sauce that I could pour on top rather than frosting it. I also added some crushed Skor bar and hazelnut chocolate bar (from Ikea) between the layers. This was a specific element from my baby craving induced vision and it definitely added to the awesomeness.

I'm not a very talented cake maker so it turned out a little ugly (lopsided, cracked on top, etc) but I wasn't planning on selling it, just eating it. And eat it I have...


Alright. There it is. Now I can eat the last piece and forget this short chocolate filled episode of my life ever happened.

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