Happy Halloween 2011!!!

Last night, Rhino attended the Second Annual Bad Scary Movie Party.  The first party was fun, but last night was even more enjoyable and bad scary.  Not wanting to arrive empty-handed, I came in a skunk costume and armed with pumpkin spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and (gummy) body part toppers. So tasty and so aumsing.  I love me a good body part topper...especially around Halloween.

Beer Bread for Braai

The other weekend, friends KK and BK hosted an African braai (aka barbeque) at their pad.  I contributed cheddar thyme beer bread (and doubled the scant recipe).  Though I found it slightly salty, it jived well with the tasty sausage, rice, and monkey gland sauce (sans monkey).  Much like KK and BK's summer cook out, the braai turned out to be a giant success because of the food...but even more because of the people.

I Love Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars...My Co-Workers, Not So Much

At the beginning of the month, I used a co-worker's birthday as an excuse to bring some tasty food into work.  In the past, brownies, cookies, and such went like flat screen television in Best Buy on Black Friday.  Well,  on October 7th I brought in pumpkin cheesecake bars and learned that over half of my co-workers either do not like pumpkin or do not like cheesecake.  Huh?!  Thankfully, the birthdayee loved the bars and so did I.  I swear...Those pumpkin/cheesecake hunters do not know what they are missing.

Andrea's First Trifle

Earlier this summer, Rhino found out that her friend Andrea had never experienced trifle.  Obviously, I stepped in to rectify the situation with my much used (see previous entry) lemon berry trifle.  I will work better on the whipped cream allotment for her next experience, but all in all I think it came out all right ( :

Celebrating Amber's Awesomeness

What I like about Amber is that she puts it all out there without any qualms.  She knows what she wants, and she will not hesitate to tell you exactly what it is either.  Of course, it also does not hurt matters that she owns two handsome cats  as well.

In the past, Rhino was remiss in celebrating Miss Amber.  So, this year, she had to make up for lost time.  In that spirit and in line with Amber's week-long vegetarian stint and Sar Sar's long-term vegetarianism, I put together a butternut squash, spinach, ricotta pasta bake for the night's entree and a zucchini fudge cake for dessert.

Dealing with butternut squash's rough exterior and demanding roasting needs deter some people from using it.  However, I feared not since I knew a few tricks.  First of all, buy the squash pre-peeled and chunked.  It means more money at the g-store (Rhino street slang for grocery store), but less time gourd fighting and possibly bleeding in the kitchen.  Embarrassingly, I also lack a sharp enough knife to wrangle an intact butternut squash, but that's a whole other matter.

Secondly, plan ahead.  I always try to prep ahead for my dinners and given that roasting only requires a little olive oil toss, some salt and pepper, and a hot oven, I figure I might as well roast and cool some squash while I pay some bills or stress over some grad school homework.  I also cooled the butternut chunks and combined them with all the ricotta ingredients a day or two before the dinner, but I hedge on the pro-active side of recipes and school assignments by nature.

Anyway, back to the celebration, on Thursday night I nestled some no-boil lasagna noodles into my baking mixture, topped it with an excess amount of mozzarella cheese, vegetable stock, and cream, kicked it into a 350 degree oven (the British Celsius degrees equal to about 320 to 380 Fahrenheit), and let it bake as I imbibed in wine with the Amber celebrants.  With a little fresh sage and some salt and pepper accentuating the recipe's flavors, Amber deemed it delicious.  Success!!

spinach, butternut squash bake

I cannot say that I felt the same way about the zucchini fudge cake.  It looked pretty and everything with chocolate frosting, funfetti sprinkles, and frosting images of Amber's kitty loves, but the zucchini overtook the cocoa's sweetness in the recipe.  The recipe's creator correctly stated that the zucchini produced an extremely moist cake.  Unfortunately, it is not a recipe that I plan on making again.  Oh well, I'm sure that there will be other birthday cakes to make in my future.  In the meantime, at least I know my way around a butternut squash and how to please the great Amber.