The Chefs of Broke Lemons: Oreo Chocolate Cake

Cake, cake, cake! Never has there been such a delightful dessert that brings a multitude of people together. The beauty of cake is that it can also be used as a tasteful way to show friends and loved ones how much you really appreciate them. There is nothing like a great combination of ingredients or people that work so well together. One of those combinations is Michele and Mike. 

In order to show our appreciation of them, Yen baked an Oreo cake for our first featured post on Michele's deliciously appetizing blog, Squirrels-n-Sweets. We felt that it would only be fitting to choose a confection that was a fine representation of the perfect union that Michele and her newlywed husband have. This cake is not the most complex of cakes, but it's a rich, moist chocolate sponge cake with Oreo buttercream filling...complete with a yummy cookie crumble topping. It definitely captures the joyfulness and personality that we've found to be so endearing in our two awesome friends. 

Just like the world's most beloved milk dunking cookie, Michele and Mike are a perfectly matched duo who are bonded by a pure white "wonder-filled" center. The highly addicting friendship they create together makes you wonder how you ever managed to exist before they came into your life.

For the full Oreo Chocolate Cake recipe check out BBC's Good Food website. 

For all of your other delicious eatery needs, just keep scrolling through the many posts of Squirrels-n-Sweets. I guarantee you'll find sugar, spice and everything nice in between. 

Love,

Yen & Harold
Broke Lemons

This guest post is brought to you by our dear friends Harold and Yen of Broke Lemons. The divine Oreo Chocolate Cake was baked by Yen and the sweet post is written by Harold. Be sure to check out their jaw-dropping blog as they explore life in New Zeland. That's right... freaking New Zeland... oh you know, the land of hobbits and elves. The landscapes are surreal, the photos picturesque, and their tales are always entertaining. I love reading their differing perspectives and sharing in their adventure. Thank you both for sharing this recipe and your kind words! Mike and I miss you but are visiting vicariously through Broke Lemons! Sending mad love and good vibes! Bird Gang 4 Life.

Chef Poptart: Portuguese Páscoa Paelha Pandemonium

As you may have gathered, Squirrel comes from Portuguese descent and loves every culinary minute of it. The same goes for me, Poptart; Squirrel and I are family. Brothers from another mother, if you will. Both mothers are Portuguese and think you look skinny. Seriously. Eat something.

If you come over to a Portuguese person’s home, and they haven’t tried to stuff your face with food, snacks, and booze, then most likely you’ve wandered into some sort of Twilight Zone. I suggest you bend over, grab your ankles, and wait for the wormhole to take you back to your normal dimension of choice.

If you’re lucky, the Twilight Zone hasn’t befallen you, and you’ve been lucky enough to wander into a proper Portuguese gluttony fest. I just hope you’re hungry. God forbid you don’t eat; I’m pretty sure that counts as the 8th Deadly Sin if you don’t gorge. If you’ve managed to come over during a holiday meal, then I hope you haven’t eaten in several days. I believe the Portuguese word for “holiday” actually derives from the ancient Latin words for “Eat until your pants violently burst off your waist.” True story.

Portuguese Paelha differs from its Spanish relative Paella in that the Portuguese version is all seafood all the time. There are some versions which add sausage or chicken, but the main focus is always seafood. The version we make takes clams, mussels, lobster, scallops, and shrimp. A small ecosystem must die to satiate the needs of this dish; its a delicious price to pay.

Paelha is one of those dishes my mom does for big events and holidays. If a lot of people are coming over to eat, this is one of her favorite things to do. Its actually pretty simple to make. You boil a lot of seafood, cook rice with seafood stock and saffron, combine together, and add garnish. Simple right? Well we had a lot of people coming over, and I had a hankering for seafood at our Easter party, so I dove right into my first Paelha.

The results were great! I opted to use whole lobsters instead of lobster tails (that option tends to be a little cheaper, and using the lobster bodies as presentation was pretty awesome to look at). None of the seafood overcooked, and I managed to have most of everything finish cooking around the same time so that everything was combined all at once and it hit the table super fresh. Cheers folks, and happy cooking - may the lobster be with you.

Serves about 10 people.

Portuguese Páscoa Paelha Pandemonium

5 lobster tails (or 3+ full lobsters - with full lobster, you have to cook them like the clams and mussels beforehand and also save that water)
3-4 lbs shrimp (more the merrier)
1 lb large scallops
18 clams
18 mussels
4-5 cups rice
bijol (possibly found in a latino market) or saffron
tabasco/pepper
1 large onion, or 2 smaller onions - diced
lots of garlic - diced
olive oil
1 cup white wine
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
3 bay leaves

Garnish (optional)

canned peas
roast red pepper slices


Prepare the seafood. Put clams and mussels into ice water for about an hour (separate containers). Clean shells. If using just the lobster tails, cut lobster tails lengthwise. Peel shrimp.

Steep the saffron in warm water (if you’re not using bijol)

All the seafood can be boiled in the same pot/water, but it will take more time. Boil clams until they open (save water). Boil mussels until they open (save water). If using whole lobsters - boil the lobsters (save water).

Once cooked, separate the tails and cut lengthwise, remove the legs and claws. The main body of the lobster isn’t great to eat, but it makes a great decoration, so save’em. Strain the water from lobster, clam, and mussels. (I actually skipped this step)

Prepare the rice. Dice half the onion, and cook in olive oil until golden. Add garlic, tobasco, bijol/saffron, water from lobster, mussels, and clams, salt to taste. Add the rice.

While rice is cooking, dice the rest of the onion, put in main paella pan with olive oil. Cook until golden. Add bay leaf, parsley, bijol/saffron, garlic, white wine.

Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes. If using just lobster tails, add lobster tails to main paella pan for about 5 minutes. Add shrimp and scallops 5-10 minutes. Add the rest of the seafood to the main pan. Add some clams/mussels water to keep everything from dying out if needed.

Wait for guests to arrive.

When ready to serve, mix in the rice. Add garnish.

Chef Navix: From Korea- Mandu!

Back in February, a friend of mine dipped out to teach in Korea for a year. I heard from a mutual friend that the man can actually cook. I never saw it with my own eyes so I was pretty skeptical.

A week or so back, he e-mailed me about his victory over Korean cuisine: Mandu (Korean Dumplings). Follow the link for the recipe he used! There's even a helpuful video.

Well, the picture he sent looks pretty tasty. Let's see how his quest turned out....

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I wake up Wednesday morning, body rocked from last nights two hour session. I lay around wanting to not think about moving my body.

"I have to go to work in 2 hours…blegh,” I think to myself.

"I still have to make lunch…BLLLEGGH!”

My reality sets in and I roll down my tiny steps into a very cold and rainy day in Bucheon, South Korea. This isn’t my best day here by far, so I need some inspiration. I sleepily grab my I-Pod to add some pep to my step and crack the fridge. I can still here the Instant Message dings going off as I seem to be looking through those drunk goggles they slap on your face during the drivers ed courses.

Then one glorious ding lets off, I have stuff to make Mandu!!!!

By this time Raekwon’s “Kiss the Ring” comes on and it’s the perfect intro to try something dangerous. I hope my friends will salute me when they are over my grave at my funeral after I accidentally kill myself from cooking this. I was a tad hype during round one, probably why the result looked like a bunch of brunt asteroids covered in more burnt brittleness. I ate it still, shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t let my failure fall to the whim of Mr. McTrashbag.

I get home late after a long day of work. I want to dance but cant since I just got wind that I will be teaching a 4 week program for helping the higher level students with writing. I drag my feet, walk upstairs, put on some music, and zone out. Inspiration hits with a track by Jamal called “Jamal 141.” I got a tad of energy and thought I should at least get something to eat. Then Kero One’s “Groovin’” comes on and now my fatness has enough energy to at least groove down the steps. I look discouraged at my grounded meat, thinking I should probably make something of that soon before it goes bad. Then, no joke, Swing Out Sister’s “Better Make it Better” comes on. I look up and let out a hardy chuckle. Thanks pops, even when you are in another country your values still reach me somehow…along with your music!

So I run downstairs to a convenience store and buy some oil that led to round one’s glorious defeat. I do everything the same except I add a ludicrously large amount of oil to prevent any perishable foods from bursting into flames. What you see before you is that happy victory in which I conquered the infamous Mandu.

Thanks to my homie in arms, Sqrl’ly Sqrl, for giving me a spot on her blog. Keep on reading for awesome deliciousness that makes souls happy. Her posts are usually better written, documented, and informative than this! Also she is awake when she writes it, which is great for people who want to make sense of things.

Peace, Love, and all the Nom Noms,

Mike aka NavIX
Dancing Monkey Dynasty
R. Funkist
HAE