Almost Molten Lava Cake

Happy Mother's Day! Today Ryan's brother and wife hosted both families at their house for a Mother's Day cookout. Kevin and Stephanie just got married in March so this was the first holiday we spent at their house. I am sure there will be many more to come! They were fabulous hosts and their newly remodeled house and yard looked awesome. Though it is Mother's Day and I could go ON and ON about all the wonderful mother's in my life, I will instead write about food!

I volunteered to bring dessert but decided not to try anything new. Instead, I worked on presentation of a new found favorite -- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies. These brownies are always a mess to server with the gooey chocolate icing. So, I decided to make them like cupcakes so there would be individual servings. This is how I did it...

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Place paper liners in muffin tins.
• Prepare the brownies and cookie dough as directed.
• Spoon brownie mix into muffin tin, no more than 1/3 full.
• Drop one spoonful of cookie dough.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick stuck in the brownie part comes out fairly clean (I like a little gooey-ness)
• Prepare Chocolate Icing as directed.
• When mostly cool, remove paper liners from cupcakes and turn over on a pan.
• Spoon a tablespoon (not the measuring kind, the kind you eat cereal with) of icing on top, letting it drip down the sides. Use more or less to your liking.
• Enjoy!

I say these are almost lava cakes because they look like a lava cake but there is no gooey goodness inside. You still get the surpise of the chocolate chip cookie inside but it's not quite a lava cake!

Tilapia with Crawfish Champagne Cream Sauce

Our friends the Hebert's are Houston "transplants" from Lake Charles, LA. Just this weekend they opened a crawfish to go store, Hebert's Hot Tails. I went by on Sunday and bought 10 pounds of crawfish. Ryan was on his way back from New Hampshire and I thought it would be a good dinner for us. Since Ryan got home so late, we didn't eat as much as we normally would so I had a good 3 or 4 pounds leftover. I really wanted to find something to use the leftovers in other than gumbo or etouffee so I thought some sort of cream sauce over fish would be yummy.

I asked for some suggestions on a local message board that I participate in and one of the girls suggested this Champagne Cream Sauce adapted from one by Emeril Lagasse. As she notes, champagne, cream and butter are a perfect combination.

Crawfish Champagne Cream Sauce
adapted from Emeril Lagasse

1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/2 cup Champagne
3/4 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Champagne vinegar
1/2 cup cooked crawfish, peeled

In a saucepan, combine the shallots and Champagne. Bring to a boil and cook until almost all liquid evaporates, about 6 minutes.

Add the heavy cream, bring to a boil and simmer until cream thickens and coats the back of a spoon, and is reduced by nearly 50 percent in volume, about 3 minutes.
Whisk in the butter until smooth and strain the sauce through a fine mesh strainer, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible.

Add Crawfish. Season, to taste, with salt, pepper, and vinegar and serve immediately over fish or shellfish.

Note: If sauce is made in advance, keep warm in a bain marie over barely simmering water. I used a "homemade" double boiler to keep it warm while I waited for the potatoes to cook.

For the fish, I used the Sauteed Fish recipe minus the cajun seasoning, then topped with the crawfish cream sauce.

Sheetrock and Exterior Update

I never did find my old camera so I never got pictures of the house over the weekend. I went to the house today during lunch and boy had things changed. 80% of the house was sheetrocked and the whole thing should be done by the end of Wednesday!!! It was amazing to see how the rooms REALLY look. Some of them felt way bigger with sheetrock than before. I've very exited. Here are a few pictures
Master Bathroom
Ryan's closet
My Closet
Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom
Gallery
Stairs
View of gameroom from top of stairs
Media Room
Game Room
And, here are some exterior pictures since the stucco and stone prep has started. They metal mesh has been installed all the way around the house and the first phases of stucco are underway.
Front
Back
Mesh Closeup
Box of stone waiting to be installed

What are you doing Sunday night?

Do you have plans between 7 and 9 central time? If not.... you do now.

Go to http://www.wfrd.com/, 99 Rock. My little brother ("in-law") will be featured on the radio station's Homebrew segment. Click the "Listen Live" link at the top right.

Eric was interviewed this week and they will be playing 5 of his songs along with the interview. He had a couple of songs played two weeks ago and they sounded AWESOME over the Internet. I hope you will check it out. I think this will all be closer to 8 but it wouldn't hurt to tune in early. And, if you like what you hear, got to HeyEric.com to hear more of Eric.

And while you are checking out Eric's website, pay attention to the artwork by our friend Justin. He rocks! Look at this drawing of my favorite big man, Yao Ming.

Stone/Stucco Prep, Insulation and Some Sheetrock

Ryan is out of town this weekend with the camera. I have another camera around here somewhere but I can't find it.

I went out to the house tonight with my friends Ashley and Steve to show them the progress. I had not seen the house all week and it was really amazing. The sound insulation between rooms was in place and the sheetrock was starting to go up. The bonus room and master closets were sheetrocked. My closet is gonna rock!

The exterior crew is prepping the house for stone and stucco! It's definitely the start of the messy stages with lots of scaffolding and big piles of sheetrock.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post tomorrow or Sunday... IF I can find my old camera!

Baking for Sports... Will this be the year?

Will this be the year that the Rockets finally make it past the first round of the playoffs? I know they have done it before -- they've won the whole thing -- but not since I have been a fan. It's time... I'm ready.

Last year, I made a NBA Playoffs Cookie Cake to support two of my teams... the Rockets and the Hornets. They both won the night I made the cake so I am hoping it works this year too. The Rockets are one game away from the Second Round. They have to win this game or it's back to Portland and I fear what that will mean.

My cookies are nothing new for me... Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix with Wilton Buttercream Icing (medium consistency). I didn't work too hard on my decorations... you can see the white icing is pretty messy but I thought my Rockets logo was pretty good for a quick, late night project.
Of course, the most important characteristic is that they taste DIVINE! I know my co-workers will be very pleased with me!

Go Rockets!

Go Rockets!

Late Sunday afternoon, Ryan got a call from the sales guy that supplies the dumpsters to his jobsites. His company has a suite at the Toyota Center and was offering us tickets to Game 4 of the Playoffs. We were out at the new house but quickly jumped in the car and headed home to get changed into our Rockets Red.

Here are some shots from the game (click to make larger).

Both teams waiting on the end of a TV commercial break.
The injured Dikembe Mutombo, headed to the locker room to support his team during half time.
Craig Sager and his suit interviewing Yao Ming at halftime.
A little bit of the action
And of course the food in the suite! This was just the dessert.

Now, I will do a little name dropping. Sometime in the first half, I looked up to see a very familiar face. I knew he was a Texan... it was Chester Pitts. He was with his teammate, Duane Brown and they hung out in our suite the entire game. A little later, Eric Winston came in with who I assume was his wife. Then, another guy that I cannot name. They were all huge!

Then, sometime after halftime, Ryan looks at me and says "Sam Cassell" is in the suite. I didn't believe him until I stood up and saw him. I did my best paparrazi but it wasn't great.

Sam Cassell in the yellow shirt in the background.
Me with Chester Pitts and Duane Brown. Go Texans!
And, the final score... 89-88, Rockets win. Up 3-1 now. Go Rockets!